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Wiggle Honda quartet smashes TP World Record again in Manchester

The Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling quartet of Elinor Barker, Dani King, Joanna Rowsell and Laura Trott smashed its own World Record in the 4000 metres Team Pursuit yet again, in the first World Cup event of the 2013/14 season, at the Manchester Velodrome. Riding for Great Britain, the four riders qualified fastest with 4 minutes, 23.910 seconds, knocking two and a half seconds off the time they set at the European Championships, in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, then took another four seconds off this in the race for Gold.

UCI Track Cycling World Cup

The winning time of 4 minutes, 19.604 seconds was enough to beat the Canadian silver medallists by almost seven seconds, and was less than two-tenths of a second slower than the South African men’s team over the same distance earlier in the day.

“Because it’s such a new event we’re finding our own limits at the moment,” Rowsell told British Cycling shortly afterwards. “In training, in our first few sessions, we just plucked a number out of thin air for the gearing and the lap schedule. We had no idea where we’d be at for 4-k because you’ve got an extra girl, but that extra kilometre’s a long way when you’ve got all that lactic in your legs.

“Over the last few competitions we’ve just been nudging it that little bit further, that little bit harder,” she added.

A seven second lead over the Canadian team meant that the British Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling riders had something to chase in the final laps, which helped to get the team close to the kind of performance expected from many men’s teams.

“Having a team that you can see at the end obviously helps you go faster as well, and I think that to go sub-20 already is really promising!” Rowsell said.

UCI Track Cycling World Cup

“We always said that we thought we’d go quicker for 4-k than we went for 3-k at the Olympics – we’d go through 3-k quicker. I’m not quite sure what we went through the 3-k there in… It’s definitely going to get quicker, but I’d say we’re ahead of schedule at the moment.”

Having only just finished her winning Team Pursuit ride, King then took the start of the Scratch Race final, along with Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling teammate Giorgia Bronzini.

King crossed the line in third position at the end of the 40-lap race but, with four riders having lapped the field in the course of the race, this was good enough for seventh place. Bronzini finished four places back in 11th.

Result Team Pursuit
1. Great Britain (Elinor Barker, Dani King, Joanna Rowsell and Laura Trott)

2. Canada
3. Australia
4. Russia

Photo Credit: SWPix.com

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