British under-23 women qualify fastest in team pursuit on second day of track champs.
Jo Rowsell, Lizzie Armitstead and Katie Colclough posted a time of 3-26 minutes in the morning session on the second day. Mark Christian qualified third fastest in the mens' junior individual pursuit with a new British junior record of 3-20 minutes. He rides for bronze tonight.
The British team finished day one of the European track championships yesterday with one gold and three silver medals. It was the junior women?s team pursuit trio that won gold as Jessica Booth, Hannah Mayho and Alexandra Greenfield beat Belgium by almost a second to claim their title.
Olympic Development coach Darren Tudor said: "The girls were fantastic. They fell apart a little in the morning but they rode really well in the evening. They were definitely technically the best team on the track."
"It?s the first time they?ve had the team pursuit at the Euros so you?re never quite sure what the other girls are doing. You don?t know where the benchmark is."
The junior men had also impressed in their final after a less disciplined qualifying ride in the morning. "Mark Christian showed his strength a little too much and blew the team apart in the qualifier, as it turned out it wasn?t really an issue, we qualified second quickest," Tudor said.
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The quartet went on to ride a 4-09 minute pursuit, a time that would have put them in the top ten at the Olympics. "In the final we were two tenths off the French, our lads rode technically better but the French went out a lot quicker than us. We were coming back at them, they were about two seconds down on them at one point. They really held the schedule and chased them home."
"They just didn?t quick go quick enough, but it?s a national record, we?ve never had a junior team go that quick."
It was a solid start all round for the Brits, but the day belonged to the French who took away four gold medals as their junior and espoir riders did their best to restore some national pride following the senior team?s dire performance in Beijing.
French riders won the kilometre time trial, team sprints and under-23 team pursuit, beating a British rider or team on each occasion. French rider Damien Gaudin also qualified fastest in the under-23 individual pursuit that resumes today.
In the junior women?s sprint, Jess Varnish was disqualified from the deciding heat in the semi final after coming underneath her rival.
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RESULTS
Men?s U23 1KM time trial 1. Michael D?Almeida (FRA) 1:01.863
2. David Daniell (GBR) 1:03.120
3. Tomas Babek (CZE) 1:03.254
4. Robert Forstemann (GER)
5. Christian Lyte (GBR)
6. Hodei Mazquiaran Uria (ESP)
7. Ghislain Boiron (FRA)
8. Adrian Teklinski (POL)
9. Sascha Hübner (GER)
10. David Alonso Castillo (SPA)
Men?s Junior Team Pursuit 1. France 4:09.231
2. Great Britain 4:09.559
3. Germany 4:14.424
4. Spain
5. Belgium
6. Russia
7. Italy
8. Poland
9. Denmark
10. Ireland
Men?s Junior Team Sprint 1. France 45.618
2. Great Britain 46.435
3. Poland 46.432
4. Russia
5. Germany
6. Greece
7. Italy
8. Ukraine
9. Spain
10. Czech Republic
Women?s Junior Team Pursuit 1. Great Britain 2:19.612
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