European Track Championships 2021: Katie Archibald takes thrilling scratch race win on opening day of action in Grenchen
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Updated 05/10/2021 at 19:10 GMT
Archibald went beyond the gold medal tally of teammate Laura Kenny with an outstanding victory at the Tissot Velodrome, securing a European title in her sixth distinct discipline. Elsewhere, Great Britain missed out on medals in both of the team sprint events as two dominant squads for the Netherlands snared double Dutch success.
'A spectacular win' - GB's Archibald wins Scratch Race gold
Great Britain's Katie Archibald secured her fifteenth European Track Championship gold medal on the first day of action at the Tissot Velodrome in Grenchen.
Archibald, winner of the madison at Tokyo 2020, claimed the first gold of the championships, which are being held in Switzerland after the decision was made to both delay the event and strip Belarus of its status as hosts earlier in the year.
In good position high up on the track, Archibald edged out Valentine Fortin of France, timing her sprint perfectly to go on the outside of the Frenchwoman and lunge for the line to secure her first ever European scratch race title.
It means the Scot has taken golds at the European Championships in six different disciplines, and topped the gold medal tally of heavily-decorated teammate Laura Kenny.
The track is well known to Archibald - she took three golds the last time the event was held at the Tissot Velodrome in 2015.
Defending champion Martina Fidanz of Italy finished fifth, with Daria Pikulik (Poland) snaring bronze.
Later in the evening session, Sergey Rostovtsev upgraded his bronze medal won last year with a superb gold in the men's elimination race.
Rostovtsev out-sprinted surprise silver medallist Joao Matias of Portugal after the gradual whittling down of a 22-rider field.
Thomas Boudat (France) completed the podium after mis-timing his effort on the penultimate elimination lap, while Great Britain's William Perrett failed to challenge, finishing 15th.
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Rostovtsev wins superb gold in men's elimination race
The Netherlands twice smashed the world record in the women's team sprint as they produced a pair of dominant performances.
Having shattered the previous mark in afternoon qualifying, the Dutch team advanced to the final against Germany with another solid ride.
And a German team including two reigning world champions was well beaten by the Dutch, comprised of Olympic keirin champion Shanne Braspennincx, Kyra Lamberink, and Hetty van de Wouw, as they lowered their world record.
A strong Russian performance, powered particularly by a blistering first lap, saw them take bronze ahead of Great Britain by a convincing margin of nine-tenths of a second.
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Netherlands smash world record in women's team sprint
A young British team containing two U23 European team sprint champions also missed out on a medal in the men's equivalent event.
Despite a significant lead after the first lap, Poland roared back around the second circuit of the Swiss velodrome to secure bronze.
In the final race on the first day of action, the formidable Dutch men's team sprint continued their golden summer as they added the European crown to their Olympic title secured in Tokyo.
Silver medallists France had false started on the first attempted running of the final and again struggled as they embarked on their tilt at glory, visibly frustrated as they finished well down on the outstanding unit from the Netherlands.
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Dutch men's team sprint add European crown to Tokyo 2020 title
Jeffrey Hoogland, Harrie Lavreysen and Roy van den Berg will bid to complete the trifecta at the World Championships, which have also been shifted from their original venue.
The event will now be held at the indoor Roubaix Velodrome between 20 and 24 October after the UCI announced that it could no longer be held in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Turkmenistan's president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow claims that his central Asian country has not suffered a single case of the coronavirus.
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The UCI Track Champions League is coming and you can watch all of the action live on the Eurosport app, eurosport.co.uk and discovery+. Find out more about the "mind-blowing" new era for track cycling, with the first event on November 6 in Mallorca.
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