UCI Track Cycling World Championships - Germany smash team sprint world record on way to gold on opening night of action
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Updated 21/10/2021 at 09:50 GMT
In the men's event, the redoubtable Dutch unit followed Olympic and European golds with another world title, crushing an otherwise impressive France. The opening medal of the championships at the Roubaix Velodrome went the way of Martina Fidanza, who surprised the pack with an early attack in the scratch race and held a comfortable advantage to the line.
'Absolutely phenomenal!' - Imperious Germany create history with third world record
Germany thrice broke the women's team sprint world record on their way to gold on the opening night of action at the 2021 UCI Track Cycling World Championships.
On a blockbuster raising of the curtain at the Roubaix Velodrome, the women raced a three-person, three lap team sprint event at a Worlds for the first time.
The German team of Lea Friedrich and Emma Hinze had lost out to China in the two-person team sprint final at Tokyo 2020 but bolstered by the punishing Pauline Grabosch produced a night of stunning sprinting.
The Germans initially fell behind in the final against the Russian Cycling Federation (RCF) but produced two storming subsequent laps to seal a masterful victory by nearly three quarters of a second.
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'Oh my goodness!' - German women break Team Sprint World Record for SECOND time
Great Britain's developing trio of Sophie Capewell, Blaine Ridge-Daivs and Milly Tanner secured bronze ahead of Japan.
In the men's equivalent event, the Netherlands completed their sweep of the major championship medals with a comfortable win over France.
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'Absolutely awesome!' - Germany break Women's Team Sprint World Record
With the tremendous triumvirate of Olympic gold medal-winners reunited after Jeffrey Hoogland had been the only member deployed at the European Championships, a Dutch victory never looked in doubt despite an impressive French unit appearing well placed to run them close.
But come the final, the gulf in pure power was made evident. Roy van den Berg and Harrie Lavreysen guiding Hoogland around the first two-thirds of the race before releasing their finisher, who decisively accelerated to complete a glittering, gilded hat-trick.
In the bronze medal race, the male German unit followed their female teammates' lead by securing a medal ahead of the RCF.
In the women's scratch race, a perfectly timed attack from Martina Fidanza saw the Italian escape the field to take victory by a mammoth margin.
After thirty laps of jockeying, Johanna Kitti Borissza attacked from the front of the bunch, drawing the 21-year-old from the pack behind her.
With five laps to go Fidanza burst away from the Hungarian's wheel, quickly distancing the field by more than half a lap as the group coalesced and ceased its chase to instead vie for the minor medals.
Fidanza was able to glance around the grand curvature of the Roubaix Velodrome as a broad grin spread across her face at the sounding of the bell, cruising around the final revolution for a commanding win to follow her breakthrough European gold at last year's continental championships.
Rising star Maike van der Duin of the Netherlands out-sprinted Olympic omnium champion Jennifer Valente (USA) to secure silver.
A beaming Fidanza told Eurosport: "I can't believe it - it is special! When there were five laps to go there was a space between me and the group so I went fast, and I won."
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