Yesterday was another very impressive day for the British track Cycling Squad. The most impressive result was the new world record set by the 4000Km team track pursuit squad. On the relaid Manchester Boards, they set a new World Record of 3min 56.322sec The team in the Four man squad was:
- Starter Ed Clancy
- Geraint Thomas
- Bradley Wiggins
- Paul Manning
Rebecca Romero won Gold in the 3,000 Km pursuit. Rebecca has now completed a remarkable transition from rowing, where only a couple of years ago she won a world title in the very different sport.
The Women’s track sprint duo of Victoria Pendleton and Shanaze Reade successfully defended their 2up sprint. (The 2up sprint is a two lap 500 metre burst of speed.). In a week where Victoria Pendleton has received much interest from her recent newspaper portraits she will be glad to prove her athletic prowess go together with the glamour of being a fashion model (btw: Victoria Pendleton is currently the most popular search on cyclinginfo.co.uk – beating even the search term ‘puncture resistant tyres‘)
Earlier in the week, Bradley Wiggins defended his 4,000Km pursuit title, leaving Britain in a great position to pass their medal tally of last week.
The only dark cloud for British cycling is the fact Rob Hayles was forced to leave the competition after record a hemocrit level of over 50%. This does not prove use of drugs, but, people who take EPO use it to raise their hemocrit levels. However, it is worth pointing out that quite a few athletes have naturally recorded levels above 50%, Charly Wigelius for example as a licence which enables him to race above 50%. There is a strong anti drug stance within British cycling and my feeling is that in this case it is a misfortunate anomaly.
