Dan Bigham claims individual pursuit gold at European championships, with eyes on 'better form' in Paris

Dan Bigham edged out Great Britain team mate Charlie Tanfield to take gold in the individual pursuit at the European championships on Friday. 

World champion Emma Finucane took gold in the women's sprint, becoming the first ever British woman to hold the European title. 

Neah Evans, competing in the women's omnium in reigning champion Katie Archibald's absence, takes home a silver medal.

Bigham and Tanfield qualified first and second ahead of the final in Apeldoorn, the former eventually posting a winning time of 4:05.783, almost two seconds faster than the silver medallist. 

"I was hoping for a bit better on the time front but a win’s a win," said the new European champion, who juggles his own racing goals with a role as Performance Engineer for Ineos Grenadiers, and also added 'father' to his list of titles, in June last year. 

Bigham rode with Tanfield, Ethan Hayter and Ethan Vernon to take the team pursuit title on Thursday evening. 

"I want to beat Charlie and I’m sure he wants to beat me, we approach it very seriously, we’re not here to mess around," Bigham said. 

With the Olympics in Paris just months away, he added: "There’s a whole lot of training to be done anyway in the next few months. Hopefully a nice consistent year, no upsets, just good flow and hopefully hit Paris with even more better form than this."

The evening's racing saw 21-year-old sprint World champion Emma Finucane secure the European title, becoming the first ever British woman to do so.

Finucane won 2-0 against Germany's Emma Hinze in the semi-final, proceeding to do battle with the same nation's Lea Sophie Friedrich in the final. Again, she was unbeaten, the success leaving her "speechless" in post race interviews.

"I didn't really know how I'd come into this competition," Finucane said. "This is my first time competing at a major championships in the rainbows. I was really, really nervous."

She added: "There’s expectation versus how you deal with pressure and I felt like I coped with everything today," concluding "I hope the momentum continues."

Neah Evans, racing the women's omnium, took the silver medal.

Evans finished fourth in the scratch race, elimination race, and fourth again in a crash marred points race.