It has long been said that it was designed to break records and, to take nothing away from the riders’ accomplishments, last night (February 17) at the Track Cycling World Cup the new London Velodrome proved them right. At the first major event to be staged at the Olympic arena Britain got things off to an unforgettable start, scooping two gold medals and setting two World Records in the process. Jess Varnish and Victoria Pendleton beat Australia (very much the pre-race favourites) for the Team Sprint in a time of 32.754 seconds, cracking previous World Record that had been set by the Ozzies on their way through to the finals. Team GB’s second gold (and World Record) came shortly after in the Women’s Team Pursuit, with Dani King, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell scoring the glory.
The men, meanwhile, still have a little work to do despite Sir Chris Hoy picking up the 50th World Cup medal of his career as part of the Men’s Team Sprint squad (along with Ross Edgar and Jason Kenny.) Hoy admitted that the squad still had improvements to make and also acknowledged that the massive support of the home crowd had gone a long way towards the day’s successes.
