David Brenchley
Victoria Pendleton claimed a clean sweep of gold medals at the British National Track Championships, giving her the perfect preparation for next weekend’s World Cup.
Pendleton claimed the first gold of the games in the 500m Time Trial, finishing just a second ahead of Halesowen A & CC’s Jess Varnish while Rebecca James (Abergavenny Road Club) took bronze.
Pendleton followed this up with another win in the 200m Sprint, beating Varnish in the final, with James yet again claiming bronze ahead of Varnish’s team mate Helen Scott.
Pendleton’s final gold medal added to the climax of the championships, winning the keirin ahead of James and Scott and she was happy with her preparation for the World Cup.
“My form has been really good this week and I am looking forward to the World Cup now. I was a bit anxious about it but I have gone a good two tenths of a second faster in my time trial than I expected,” she said.
“I was training really hard for these championships so with a few more days recovery, a little bit of sharpening up hopefully I will find another tenth or two.”
Elsewhere Varnish and Scott helped take Halesowen to Team Sprint gold, a second ahead of City of Edinburgh’s Jenny Davis and Charline Joiner. Cassie Gledhill and Janet Birkmyre secured bronze for XTR – www.elmcycles.co.uk.
Both girls were happy with their performances, Scott explained: “We are chuffed, we had tired legs from the rides before and we were quite a bit ahead of the other girls so we are happy and we worked very well as a team.”
Varnish will now go away to prepare for the World Cup, also being held in Manchester: “This is a stepping stone for the World Cup for me and I am really happy with my form. Hopefully I can rank it up for next weekend.”
Sarah Storey (VC St Raphael) was victorious in the pursuit, beating Hannah Mayho (100% ME) in the final as Dani King (Vision 1 Racing) got bronze.
Lizzie Armitstead eased to two gold medals, the first in the 15km Scratch race, beating Mayho and King (silver and bronze respectively).
The Otley-born rider then eased to victory in the 30km Points race, finishing with 47 points. Her nearest challengers were Mayho and King, who finished tied on 20 points, gaining silver and bronze respectively.
Finally, King and Alexandra Greenfield (100% ME) claimed gold in the 20km Madison despite a tough challenge from Corinne Hall (Team Corridori) and Hannah Barnes (BC PM).
The latter claimed the first and final sprints but King and Greenfield were consistent and scored well in all sprints. Mayho and Laura Trott (VC Londres) finished in the bronze medal position.
