GLASGOW (Reuters) -- Britain’s Katie Archibald helped deliver an emotional victory in the women’s team pursuit at her home velodrome as her quartet overpowered New Zealand for gold at the UCI World Cycling Championships in Glasgow.
Archibald, a stalwart of the British pursuit team for a decade, Elinor Barker, Josie Knight and Anna Morris did not put a wheel out of place as they delivered Britain’s first women’s world title in the blue-riband track event since 2014.
The 29-year-old Archibald took a huge turn on the front midway through the 16 laps to help pull Britain into the lead and Knight drove it home as the crowd roared them on.
Britain’s margin of more than four seconds underlined their dominance during the competition after they beat France earlier.
Archibald, took up track cycling at the Glasgow velodrome as an 18-year-old, is a two-time Olympic champion and now has five world golds. But few of her triumphs could have meant as much.
A year ago she suffered tragedy when her partner, fellow cyclist Rab Wardell, died of a cardiac arrest, while earlier in 2022 Archibald suffered serious injuries after being struck by a car while training, bursting both of her ankles.
“It’s all coming out now to be honest,” Archibald told fellow British track great Chris Hoy, who the velodrome is named after, of the emotions she was feeling.
“We have always seen ourselves as the best in the world (in team pursuit) but not been here on the top step since 2014.”
Barker, who has returned to the saddle after giving birth to son Nico in March last year, goes back a long way with Archibald. The two were team mates in Cali, Colombia, in 2014 when Britain’s domination of team pursuit was total.
“She’s unbelievable. It’s really hard to kind of summarize the year she’s had and how she feels about it and how we feel, but just the fact she is here, it’s insane, I really don’t know how she does it to be honest,” the six-time world champion said.
France took the bronze medal.