The first running of the women's madison at a Track World Cup came down to the wire with Team GB's Katie Archibald and Manon Lloyd getting the better of Laurie Berthon and Coralie Demay in a dramatic finale at Glasgow's Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome. A false start was followed by a crash in the 26-rider field that saw Australian Alexandra Manly and Archibald go down as officials attempted to stop the peloton.
Archibald was involved in a second crash as her and Lloyd approached the second sprint that saw five riders hit the deck. Belgian Kaat Van Der Meulen was carried away from the track on a stretcher but the British duo were able to continue.
"Someone closed down on top of Manon and I was still there," Archibald said of the accident according to the Guardian. "There was nowhere to go. We all came down in a domino."
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Having then sat out several laps to recover, Archibald and Lloyd remounted and re-entered the race. With no more crashes interrupting the action, the British duo found themselves in a three-way tussle with the French and Ukrainian teams for the gold medal.
Archibald took it upon herself to take up the race and rode aggressively to snare first place in three straight sprint points, with double points in the final sprint handing them the first ever Track World Cup madison gold medal.
"It was fast, it was the biggest ask for us trying to get that lap," said Rio team pursuit gold medallist Archibald of the race. "But we managed to bring it round and be competitive in the sprints. So yeah a pretty fast and furious race."
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