Cav won the bunch sprint in the desert today. 'Queen' stage in the mountains tomorrow to decide GC

Katy Archibald has won the Gold in the individual pursuit on the track

That's her third ECh IP title in a row, so she clearly likes these champs. It would be great to see her win the stripes for it one of these days.

She did back-to-back sub-3:30 pursuits as well, which is impressive. Anna Turvey (who competes for Ireland and represented Scotland in Glasgow 2014) bagged a bronze medal for the same event.

Worth remembering that Katie made her international debut at this equivalent event just 4 years ago, and now she is an Olympic gold medallist and world record holder. That's got to be the target for all the young British cyclists. Same for Elis Ligtlee, in fact.

The FFrench winner of the men's Individual Pursuit deserved his victory. Rather than messing around for the first few laps he took the fight to his opponent and by doing so he got the better of him early on. That is the highlight of the 3 televised days so far.


Katy Archibald has been Great Britain's greatest.

Yes, that was an unusual tactic from the Frenchman........blasting off and getting three-quarters of a lap up then hanging on for grim death as the German was clawing it back lap by lap. One more lap and the German would have won !

Katy takes gold in the re-vamped Omnium.

I know we mainly sent a team of youngsters but then so did a few other countries so it was a bit disappointing that we didn't get anyone in the quarter finals of the men's or women's individual sprints.........I assuming we did have some entered !

I didn't see the race, but I've seen the splits. That race was rather similar to last year's WCh final on the same track (Jack Bobridge v Stefan Küng); in this case, however, the 'blast off and hang on for grim death' tactic worked.
Corentin Ermenault comes from good stock - his father was a top pursuiter back in the days of Obree and Boardman.

Filippo Ganna of Italy (the world champion, as it happens) will be pleased to know you've changed his nationality for him.

2 golds and a silver for Archibald this week...not bad at all.

Two GB men in Ryan Owens and Joseph Truman contested the quarters after qualifying second in 9.752 (!) and fifth in 9.830 respectively. A young Frenchman (Sebastien Vigier; qualfied third in 9.816) also did but they all lost out to more experienced sprinters at that stage.

On the women's side, Rachel James (Becky's elder sister) was a Paralympic tandem pilot until fairly recently and Eleanor Richardson is a physiotherapist who wasn't even expecting to be selected for these champs. James also fell in the keirin yesterday so it's no surprise neither of them made the quarters.

I found this a bit confusing as I thought that as well......

But watching tonight there appeared to be another 4 quarter finals with no Brits involved.......

I like the playing of the Jaws theme as the sprinters do the first couple of tactical laps.......

just checking tonight's schedule and it was the women's quarter finals but the men's semi-finals which was confusing me.......

Tomorrow's session is on in the afternoon and features Madisons, Womens sprint and Mens keirin

She's had a good running battle going all week with Kirsten Wild. Katy's not much of a sprinter, though, has to do it all the hard way. Rachel James got 9th in the sprint, won the loser's race neatly.

Re: Women's Sprints, anyone know what's happening with Shanaze Reade? 18 Months or so ago she left BMX to concentrate on track but since then nada. She wasn't selected for any World Cups in the run up to Rio & not picked for this. Is she injured or has she been given the boot like Varnish?

I don't know what happened to Shanaze Reade

She's still listed as part of the squad but hasn't appeared on the track as far as I've noticed

Maybe she's just been overtaken by some of the younger ones whilst she was off BMXing

Cav won the final stage in Abu Dhabi

It wasn't on live but I caught the recording at about 5pm................looked very weird just doing laps on the motor racing circuit.

25 laps of just over 5K per lap

Not much cop for people who watch the cycling for the scenery...............

Strange story ...............

Joaquim Rodriguez has come out of retirement (after about a month) to join the new Bahrain team

It's been suggested that he has been offered a contract merely to obtain his UCI points to further the team's ambition to become a world tour team................and that he probably won't ever ride for them !

bit of skulduggery ?

As a result, he has claimed at least 10 pro road victories per year for 10 straight years (including a staggering 23 in 2009 alone).

He and Wiggo will be soon be riding the Lee Valley track in rainbow jerseys for the London Six-Day; the four guys with whom they shared the WCh madison podium in said venue also made today's ECh podium with the Spaniards claiming the champions' jerseys on this occasion.

Among other things, the two Emilys were the last Brits to claim hardware in Paris as they won silver in the madison.

I'm wondering if Wiggo will turn up...............I half expect him to pull out at the last minute to avoid the media scrum

It looked like a computer game due to the scale, clean lines and empty stadia.

Despite the dedicated efforts of House and his Lotto partner in the break, the race was too sterile and predictable. After a few laps, even the half dozen royal kids at the track-side table were getting bored going through the flag waving motions for the cameraman.

I imagined it was live until BMC tweeted one lap to go when the TV showed six.

Intriguing tweet by Froome: https://twitter.com/chrisfroome/stat...13671999397888

I've just posted tis in the 'Live Sport on Today' thread but as I've written I might as well stick it in here as well......

Tonight there's Track Cycling on Eurosport.......the start of the London Six Day. Even as a cycling fan I do find this a bit of a strange event. Basically it's a competition over 6 days between teams of two cyclists. They accrue points in a series of events and the team with the highest points after six days wins. They do appear to have the same events night after night and there's a lot of those 'Madison' races where one member of the team has a break up the top of the track and then is slinged back into the race by his partner.......impossible to follow for the viewer......with riders all over the track, some in the race, some resting......nighmare ! The main interest is that Wiggo is meant to be teaming up with Mark Cavendish as part of his Retirement Farewell Tour.....will he turn up ? as there's bound to be a media scrum after all the allegations and unanswered questions

It's real old-school stuff, it goes back to the days - as recent as the 1980s, really - when even well known pro cyclists were not so well paid that they could afford to ride for only eight months in the year and not get paid during the close season. So in the winter it was a choice between going back to your father's painting and decorating business or riding track events.

There's a bit of pro wrestling involved, the first few days of the six are basically about entertaining the crowd, making sure all the sponsors and kids get selfies, putting on a bit of a show and working out who the serious contenders are. Maybe the last race or so of the night will be full speed. Things will start to get more serious from day 4 on. As well as the main event, there are also sprints and women's races, some of which are basically showbiz. The idea is to make sure that the crowd is kept entertained, and buying beer and hotdogs.

There's a bit of division among the riders as well, some will be like Wiggo and Cav who are World Tour cyclists on a bit of a light winter training; for some of the other guys this will be the main focus for their season, although they maybe ride for division 2 or 3 teams during the summer.

Does this answer your question?

The newly announced 100th Giro route that Froome found enticing: https://youtu.be/-MDnsNievyg

Half dozen sprint stages, the second ITT is on the final day in Milan and, real tough climbing stages in the final week (though the hardest final climbs are in the first half up Etna and Blockhaus).

The queen stage - Cimo Coppi - is Stage 16 on 23 May.

Here's a selection of images from tonight.

Until now, I had no clue what on Earth the 'Longest Lap' was.

[quote=Edward_Sloley;84347762
Until now, I had no clue what on Earth the 'Longest Lap' was.[/QUOTE]

I'd seen that before.......I think they do them at the Revolution meetings

I flicked in and out last night.......I'm afraid that I just can't get interested in those Madison races or the Derny races but the sprints and keirins and one-off events are OK

Cav and Wiggo take a lap in the first 10 minutes of the first Madison race and that puts them into the overall lead in the 6 Day

I think I'm getting the hang of this now.......

Just a reminder, Saitama Criterium from Japan on the early hours of Saturday morning, positively, definitely, absolutely the very last, final and terminal race of the year. It's it a bit of a glorified bit of PA work for the TdF in Asia, really. Lots of big names rolling round, only a few taking it seriously.