Clancy has that golden feeling - and plots a way to get even faster
Ed Clancy’s long-awaited return to track racing brought a familiar golden feeling in the men’s team pursuit at the Track World Cup in Manchester, but the three-time Olympic champion is already planning ways to get better.
Clancy teamed up with Steven Burke, Kian Emadi and Oliver Wood to completely dominate their final against Denmark, winning in a time of three minutes 55.847 seconds – 5.688secs ahead of the Danes over the four-kilometre distance.
Making his first track appearance since the Rio Olympics after a year on the road, Clancy has plenty of work ahead to convert the engine capacity he has built up into raw speed – but the signs were all positive in Manchester.
Great Britain team pursuit riders: Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Oliver Wood and Kian Emadi won gold in the team pursuit at the Track World Cup (Richard Sellers/PA)
“He’s been brilliant,” said Burke, who won Olympics gold alongside Clancy in London and Rio. “He’s seamlessly stepped into the team and done a really great job.”
Clancy was much more circumspect when asked about his performance, but happy with the end result.
“I was better in the semi-finals, tonight I was making up the numbers,” said the 32-year-old.
“We’re in a good place but the model of the team pursuit is that we’re going to have to do a performance three or four seconds better than that if we’re to have a chance of a stripey jersey (at the World Championships in February).
“I remember eight years ago we did a (three minute) 56.4 at the World Championships here with Brad (Wiggins), Geraint Thomas and Paul Manning and set a world record. We were beating our chests and high-fiving the crowd.
“Tonight we’ve gone a second faster and we’re thinking, ‘Yeah, that’s a good ride, but we can go faster’.”
All-amateur squad Team KGF – the British national champions – were beaten to bronze by France despite clocking three minutes 58.455 seconds.
The team pursuit was one of two gold-medal rides on the night for Great Britain, with Katie Archibald and Elinor Barker delivering in the women’s Madison.
They won by two points from Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky and Jolien D’Hoore – the reigning world champions – a day after Archibald took silver in the omnium while wearing the rainbow stripes.
“It’s not been a good event for world champions,” Archibald said. “The curse went against me yesterday but it’s worked today.”
Archibald crossed the line second behind D’Hoore in the last of the eight sprints to concede four points, but the British pair had enough in hand to claim gold after winning five of the first six.
Archibald and Barker will be looking for gold again on Sunday after joining up with Emily Nelson and Neah Evans to comfortably top the time sheets in qualifying for the women’s team pursuit.
Their time of four minutes 18.471 seconds was more than three and a half seconds faster than Italy in second and nearly nine seconds ahead of Japan in third – and was Britain’s fastest time since Archibald, Barker, Joanna Roswell-Shand and Laura Kenny broke the world record in Rio.
“I’m not capable of any heroics in the team pursuit,” said Archibald. “I think I did a decent job for the team but we were resting in Elinor in qualifying. I think we’re going to have a lie-in tomorrow (for the first round), and if we make the final we’ll see how the legs feel.”
