Celebrating gold medals has become second nature to Great Britain’s women’s sprint trio, who added a rainbow jersey to their Olympic title on Wednesday evening.
Wearing shiny gold helmets, Katy Marchant, Emma Finucane and Sophie Capewell cruised to victory at the UCI Track World Championships in Ballerup, Denmark, qualifying top, before gaining speed in both the first round and the final, in which they beat the Netherlands by more than half a second.
The scenes afterwards were similar to those at the Paris Olympics; however, this time, they seemed well-rehearsed. Each rider sought out their families along the banking, collected a Union Jack, and wheeled back onto the track. When the moment came for a hug, Capewell nodded across to her mum, signalling for her to shuffle down to the front.
The moment sealed a remarkable year for the trio, who in 2024 alone have won two World Cups, an Olympic gold medal, and now a world title – Great Britain’s first in the event since 2008.
“It feels a bit like the icing on the cake,” Capewell told Cycling Weekly afterwards. “The cake was pretty damn good in the summer, and that’s just finished it up nicely.
“As kids growing up in sport, there are two big things you aim for. To say, ‘When I grow up I want to be world and Olympic champion’, and then for that to become reality is very much a dream come true.”
As they stood on the podium, waving left to right in unison in rainbow jerseys, it was hard to believe the women’s sprint pathway had long been considered, in Finucane’s words, the “weakest link” in the GB squad.
The current trio’s predecessors failed to qualify for both the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, but the team has progressed rapidly since. Bronze medals at the Worlds in 2021 and 2022, became a silver medal last year, which they have now upgraded to gold.
For Finucane, the progress comes thanks to “everyone back at home”. “It’s not just obviously us three on the start line. It’s been such a work in progress,” she said. “We’ve had many coaches, many nutritionists, psychologists, doctors, a team behind the team for women’s sprinting.
“After winning the Olympics, then coming here and finishing it off with a gold medal, after silver and bronze, it's just testament to everyone back at home and the women’s sprint [squad] in general. It’s really exciting.”
Prior to the competition, Marchant was clear that the trio had “nothing to lose” in Denmark, already the world record holders in the discipline.
“I did feel a little bit of pressure today, actually,” the 31-year-old smiled post-race. “But personally, on ourselves. We wanted the title of being Olympic and world champions in the same year. It was what got us through the last seven or eight weeks of training to get here.
“It still doesn’t mean that it was easy. Today was a tough day on the bike, a perhaps a little bit harder than winning an Olympic medal, for different reasons. I’m really glad we showed up today and we could do some really, really solid performances.”
The Netherlands won silver, while Australia beat Germany to the final podium spot in the bronze medal ride-off.
It was the Olympic champions who won the men’s team sprint, too. The Dutch team of Harrie Lavreysen, Jeffrey Hoogland and Roy van den Berg – also the world record holders – won their sixth world title in the past seven championships, beating Australia in the final.
Great Britain’s team, made up mostly of debutants, placed fourth in the event behind Japan.
“We’ve done very little [preparation] as a group, but I think we can be really proud of ourselves,” said Joe Truman. The 27-year-old rode alongside debutants Harry Ledingham-Horn and Marcus Riley in the final, the latter swapping in for Hayden Norris after the first round.
Twenty-year-old Ledingham-Horn said the event was "a tough one".
“It’s easy to come to a debut Worlds and just come for the experience, but to be very close to winning a medal, you can’t complain with that,” he said.
In the evening’s other medal event, the women’s scratch race, Lorena Wiebes won her first rainbow jersey, on her maiden track outing at an international competition. The Dutchwoman attacked with one lap remaining in the 40-lap race, holding off triple Olympic champion Jennifer Valente (USA).
“I expected that actually somebody will pass me in the last lap,” Wiebes told Cycling Weekly. “We knew that if I was leading with one lap to go, it would be ideal for me, but it was really also instinct. I said to the coach before, ‘We need to do it through instinct, and not think too much, because anything can happen.’
“I found a good wheel, and I felt that with one and a half laps to go, I needed to start moving up more to the front. It worked out perfectly.”
On Thursday, Great Britain’s men’s team pursuit squad will ride in the gold medal final against the hosts and reigning champions Denmark. The Brits qualified top on Wednesday with a time of 3:48.759, just two tenths of a second faster than the Danes.
Great Britain’s women's team pursuit squad also qualified top, setting up a promising title defence on Katie Archibald’s return to the squad.
