Triple gold for Archibald

Katie Archibald starred in her final outing before the Paris Olympics, winning three gold medals at the last UCI Nations Cup in Milton, Canada, last weekend.

The two-time Olympic champion opened her tally in the team pursuit, riding alongside Josie Knight, Anna Morris, Jess Roberts and Meg Barker, and winning by six seconds in the final. She then dazzled with Neah Evans in the Madison to win with 37 points, 12 more than the next nearest pairing, before stamping her authority on the omnium, beating world champion Jennifer Valente (USA) to the gold.

This summer, Archibald will target all three events again at the Olympics. “That’s the dream,” she said in a recent roundtable interview. “It has been since coming out the other side of Tokyo. I felt like I had learned enough that I could understand what the demand was.”

There were gold medals, too, in Milton, for the British men’s team pursuit squad (Dan Bigham, Ethan Hayter, Ethan Vernon, Ollie Wood and Charlie Tanfield), who caught their opponents, Belgium, in the final with four laps to go. Hayter also claimed victory in the omnium, lapping the field twice in the final points race, giving GB five golds overall.

The men’s team sprint trio (Jack Carlin, Ed Lowe and Hamish Turnbull) finished runners-up to the Dutch, while Mark Stewart claimed bronze in the elimination race, and Carlin earned the same honours in the keirin.

The women’s sprint squad decided to forgo the competition, having already qualified for the Olympics this August.

Turn to page 24 to read more about their preparation.