Anna Morris rode her way to a first world title in the women’s individual pursuit and the first for the women’s squad in a decade. On her way to glory, Morris knocked out cycling legend Chloe Dygert on the penultimate day of the 2024 UCI Tissot Track World Championships.
Elsewhere in the team, both Sophie Capewell and Katy Marchant claimed their spots on the women’s 500m time-trial podium, with silver and bronze respectively. Katie Archibald and Neah Evans also took the bronze in the Madison, sending Great Britain to the top of the medal table for the final day of competition in Copenhagen.
Women’s individual pursuit
Anna Morris lit up the evening for Great Britain, taking her first individual world championship medal; a world title no less, in a ferocious head-to-head against defending world champion Chloé Dygert.
In qualifying, Anna Morris rode with her trademark calculation and control, leading from the off and setting a ferocious pace for her competitor, Maria Escalera (Spain), to follow. Morris went ahead early, gaining on Escalera before eventually catching her with 625m to go and setting the fastest time at that point of qualifying (3:17.656).
Reigning world champion Chloé Dygert later delivered a blistering ride, incredibly breaking her own world record in a time of 3:15.663 and securing her place in the gold medal race against Morris.
In the final, things were neck and neck for the first kilometre with just 0.2 seconds separating the pair. As the race developed, Morris stayed composed while slowly chipping away at the gap between her and the American, with Dygert only 0.4 seconds ahead at the halfway point. With three laps to go, Morris overturned her deficit to lead Dygert, then the margin only grew in the final two laps. In a blistering finish, Morris bested the American by 0.447 seconds to take Great Britain’s first female individual pursuit title in a decade – having to check the scoreboard to confirm her feat.
On her win, Morris said: “I’m in shock, I was just trying to ride for a PB really and see what I could do. To be world champion, I’m speechless!”
“I tried to settle into a slightly faster pace and I was getting good feedback from Cam Meyer, my coach on the trackside,” Morris continued. “He was giving me lap splits and as we were getting into the final kilo he was giving me positive feedback to tell me I was getting close to Chloé and I had all my GB teammates down the back straight and I could hear them screaming, so I thought maybe, you’ve just got to dig deep here and give it all you’ve got and see where you end up.”
Meg Barker delivered a good ride time of 3:24.066 over the 3km, which kept her in contention for a medal race until the penultimate qualifying heat. She finished in sixth position overall.
Women’s 500m time-trial
The women’s sprint squad showed their prowess once again with Sophie Capewell taking the silver medal in the women’s 500m time-trial, while Katy Marchant won the bronze.
Qualifying started well for the Brits, with all riders setting new PBs; Katy Marchant qualified third in 33.157, while Emma Finucane qualified fourth in 33.189.
Capewell qualified second in a time of 33.013, breaking her own national record of 33.42.
Heading into the final, the newly-crowned sprint world champion for the second time, Finucane put down an impressive ride, covering the two laps of the track in 33.178 seconds. Marchant raced a time of 33.119, with both Brits bettering their qualifying times.
Capewell stuck to her qualifying gear and, after being down on Marchant for the first lap and a half, gave it everything on the final straight to produce a time of 33.010. This broke her national record for the second time and saw her go away with the silver medal, her first individual podium at a world championships.
Marchant’s time saw her take the bronze medal while Finucane’s time meant she narrowly missed out on the podium with a fourth-place finish.
After placing fourth in the women’s sprint the previous day, Capewell said of her medal win: “It’s my first individual medal, I’m just really proud of it. After yesterday I felt so disappointed and I had a choice of whether to be sad today or to turn it into anger, so I decided to try and turn it into anger and get it all out on the bike and I think it paid off!”
She continued, “I’m doing it for the big, strong girls! Carrying more muscle means you quickly switch on the lactic build up and it’s really hard to get rid of it, so I can’t imagine what a kilo is going to feel like [when the event changes] after what a 500m TT feels like.”
Women’s Madison
Scottish Duo Katie Archibald and Neah Evans were key players in a punchy, action-packed race, winning points regularly and working hard to take the bronze medal overall.
Starting strong with a clear sprint tactic, the pair comfortably racked up points in almost every sprint to sit firmly at the top of the leaderboard for the first part of the race. Archibald looked confident and back to form, while Evans delivered impressive sprints, putting her head down to get the job done in a busy field.
With 75 laps to go, Archibald attacked, followed by Denmark and Ireland at the front of the chase, delivering smooth changes with Evans to keep their lead as the rest of the race splintered behind them.
By the midway point, the Brits started to be reeled back into the group as Denmark and Belgium powered through on the front heading into the sprint. Archibald dropped in to take another two points, while Denmark moved up the leaderboard seven points behind them.
GB continued to take sprint points, extending their lead before Italy, France and the Netherlands took a lap, knocking GB into fourth place and seven points off the podium. Soon after, Denmark made a solo break with the home crowd roading behind them.
Meanwhile, the British pair continued to do a lot of work on the front as the likes of Japan, Italy and Denmark followed their wheels before making fruitless attacks. As Denmark came through to complete their lap take, GB was pushed into fifth momentarily, before overtaking Italy with a sprint point to be just one point away from the podium.
With 10 laps to go, a powerful changeover mid-lap saw the Brits take maximum points in the penultimate sprint, but still one point shy of the podium, needing the next sprint win get onto a step. In the final four laps, the pace ramped up with France and the Netherlands pushing on the front. Evans moved a lap later with a huge effort and the other favourites followed in hot pursuit.
Evans got a final hand-sling in to perfectly position Archibald ahead of the final sprint against France, the Netherlands and Denmark. In a ferocious final push, Archibald took the final sprint win for Great Britain, pipping the Dutch team to get their hands on a well-earned bronze medal.
