GLASGOW — Denmark reclaimed their world title in men’s team pursuit as they defeated Olympic champions Italy in the final at the UCI World Cycling Championships in Glasgow.
In a repeat of the gold-medal battle at the Tokyo Games in 2021 which Italy won in a world record time, Denmark exacted revenge as they reeled in the Azzuri to win comfortably.
The Danish quartet of Lasse Leth, Niklas Larsen, Rasmus Pedersen, Carl-Frederik Bevort trailed narrowly for the first half of the 16 laps around the Chris Hoy Velodrome.
But a massive acceleration took them ahead and unlike in Tokyo, when Filippo Ganna powered Italy to gold in thrilling fashion, Italy could find no storming finish.
Denmark also won the title in 2020 and were favourites going into the Olympics.
New Zealand thrashed Australia to win the bronze.
In the women’s team pursuit final later, Britain — led by local favourite Katie Archibald — take on New Zealand, seeking to win the title for the first time since 2014.
Away from the velodrome there was a stunning British win in the men’s mountain bike downhill event at Fort William as Charlie Hatton produced a daredevil ride to snatch gold on a rain-soaked course.
Hatton, who has never even won a World Cup race, blasted down the course in 4:26.747 and then had to sit and watch 14 riders try to better his time.
One by one they failed with only Austria’s Andreas Kolb coming close, but having to settle for silver, 0.59 seconds slower. Austria’s Valentina Holl won the women’s title.
“Maybe not revenge but I was eager to get back at them,” Leth, who changed his name from Lasse Norman Hansen after marrying fellow cyclist Julie Leth last year, told Reuters.
“It was two years ago so it was great to come out on top this time.”
Denmark, who set the world record when winning the team pursuit in 2020 but also had that snatched away by the Italians in Tokyo, were clinical around the Chris Hoy Velodrome and never panicked when Italy forged an early lead.
This time they were never going to let their lead slip.
“In the last kilometre we were quite close to them, we could see them and we were quite far ahead. I wouldn’t say I was afraid of them coming back on us in the end like before, I was quite confident we had it.”
Teenager Bevort said his team mates had spoken a lot about the Olympic final in the build-up.
“I wasn’t there so it affected the other guys a bit more,” Bevort said. “They were thirsty for some revenge.
“We had a great start in the qualifiers but there were still a few things we could do better. Today we did it.”
The next mission will be carrying the form in to next year’s Olympics Games and shaving off seconds from their winning time of 3:45.161 — nearly three seconds off Italy’s best.
“This is promising but I think we can be better in Paris,” Bevort said.
Germany’s Emma Hinze claimed her second gold medal in two days at the UCI World Championships with a powerful ride in the women’s 500m time trial on Friday.
The 25-year-old sprinter saved the best to last as she bettered the time of Australia’s Kristina Clonan by one tenth of a second at the Chris Hoy Velodrome.
Clonan was seeking to become the first Australian to win the world title at the event since Anna Meares in 2012.
Hinze won the women’s team sprint the day before in a world record time — Germany’s fourth world title in succession at that discipline — and now has eight world golds in total.
