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Videos: Team pursuit golds for GB on Track World Cup Day 1

World record for women's quartet, men see off Australia again...

Great Britain’s track cyclists took two of the five gold medals on offer on the opening day of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics in Manchester yesterday, with the men’s and women’s team pursuit squads maintaining their dominance in the discipline.

In their final against Canada, the first time the women’s team pursuit has been raced at world level in the new four rider, 4,000 metre format, Olympic champions Dani King, Joanna Rowsell and Laura Trott, joined by Elinor Barker, set a new world record time of 4 minutes 19.604 seconds.

You can watch the closing stages of the final in this video.

The men’s quartet of Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Andy Tennant and Owain Doull saw off longstanding rivals - and current world champions - Australia, just as Team GB had done in the final at London 2012.

Doull is the latest member of the squad aiming to make it three in a row at Rio in 2016, while Tennant, was the fifth member of the team pursuit line-up at London last year but didn't get a ride, meaning he missed out on a medal to his huge disappointment and frustration.

Besides Clancy and Burke, the other two riders who did win gold in London were Peter Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas - the latter has his own cause for celebration today with the announcement that he has got engaged to his girlfriend, Sara.

Here’s a montage of Friday’s action – you can find lots of other videos of yesterday’s racing on the UCI channel on YouTube.

There were medals for British cyclists in the other three events, though none was gold.

Germany’s Miriam Welte and Kristina Vogel beat the British pairing of Vicky Williamson and Becky James to win the team sprint.

But Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny and Matt Crampton – plus Kian Emadi, who had ridden in qualifying – had to settle for bronze in the men’s version, with Germany beating Russia for gold.

In the women’s points race, won by Małgorzata Wojtyra, silver went to Katie Archibald – not riding for Great Britain, however, but for Scottish Cycling.

The action continues today, with BBC Red Button coverage from 6pm.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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4 comments

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jarredscycling | 11 years ago
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I felt kind of bad for the one GB rider who didn't get to wear the world champs skinsuit in the women's event

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Guyz2010 | 11 years ago
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Kiwis maybe, but Yorkshire got more medals than Australia in the London Olympics.

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Guyz2010 | 11 years ago
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First the Ashes now this. The UK CRUSH the Australians again. Eat your hearts out Gold Diggers.

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GerardR replied to Guyz2010 | 11 years ago
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Just to stick up for the Aussies for once, wait till the All Blacks have done England again & then let's see if you're still laughing, Jimmy!

regards from early summer in the Anti-podes, as my wee Scottish flatmate in London used to describe it.

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