Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Elinor Barker won the Silver Medal in the Individual Pursuit at the second round of the UCI Track World Cup, in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Riding in the colours of the Great Britain national team, the 19-year-old Welshwoman qualified for the final as the fastest rider, in a time of three minutes, 30.009 seconds, taking five seconds off her personal best, and setting up a Gold Medal contest with Australia’s Rebecca Wiasak.
Unfortunately, Barker was just unable to reproduce her qualification time in the final race, completing the 3000 metres in three minutes, 31.070 seconds, to finish just over two seconds behind Wiasak, who had improved on her own qualification performance.
In the Women’s Omnium, Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s double Olympic champion Laura Trott ended the first day poised in second position, after three of the six events, just three points behind competition leader Sarah Hammer of the United States.
Round one went to Hammer, with victory in the Flying Lap, while Trott’s time of 13.925 – just 0.116 of a second slower than Hammer – was good enough to take sixth place. Hammer then managed to edge in front of Trott in the final sprint of the 20km Points Race to take third place, despite both riders finishing on 31 points. This pushed the British rider down to fourth, and slightly increase Hammer’s overall lead.
The Elimination Race saw Trott take back several points over the American however, with yet another victory in what is her speciality event. A final sprint victory over Mexico’s Sofia Arreola, who was riding on her home track, meant that the Olympic champion finished day one of the competition with eleven points, just three points behind Hammer, who could only manage fourth in the race.
Result Individual Pursuit
1. Rebecca Wiasak (Australia)
2. Elinor Barker (Great Britain)
3. Caroline Ryan (Ireland)
