The 2016 European Track Championships drew to a conclusion on Sunday, with France topping the medal table after five days of racing on home soil at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome on the outskirts of Paris.
Sylvain Chavanel, 37, used his experience to lead a young squad in the team pursuit but left Thomas Denis (19), Corentin Ermenault (20), Florian Maitre (20), and Benjamin Thomas (21) to bring home the gold in the final against Italy on Saturday. The bronze medal went to Great Britain, who were without any of the riders who won the Olympic title in Rio this summer.
Ermenault went on to claim the individual pursuit title, narrowly beating the current world champion Filippo Ganna (Italy) in the gold-medal ride with a time of 4:18.778. Quentin Lafargue then claimed France's third gold as he clocked 1:00.685 in the kilometre time trial, beating Germany's Eric Engler and the Czech Republic's Tomas Babek.
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France finished with three gold medals, one silver, and three bronze, with Russia also taking home three golds – but only one silver and one bronze – to finish second on the medal table. Great Britain won the most medals – tied on eight with the Netherlands – but they were only good enough for third on the table due to their lower count of two golds.
The British squad bore little resemblance to the one that once again dominated at the Olympic Games, but it was Katie Archibald, a team pursuit champion in Rio, who earned both golds. She wasn't part of the bronze-winning team in that discipline here but earned her third consecutive European title in the individual pursuit before winning the Omnium.
"I thought I was destined for failure because I'd been working at a lot slower pace in training," she said of her pursuit rides. "I guess I must still be benefitting from my Olympic form but I'm also pretty well rested."
Firsts
The new European champions
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