JENNIFER Valente continued the American women’s team’s flying start to the UCI World Championships with a perfectly-timed charge for gold in the scratch race yesterday.
The Olympic omnium champion picked a path through the pack to launch her victory sprint on the 40th and final circuit of the Chris Hoy Velodrome and held on for gold.
Dutch rider Maike van der Duin was second with New Zealand’s Michaela Drummond third.
Germany’s women have also begun the championships impressively on the boards with sprinter Emma Hinze claiming a second gold medal in two days with a powerful ride in the 500m time trial, pipping Australia’s Kristina Clonan.
Clonan was seeking to become the first Australian to win the world title in the discipline 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 titles.
Valente now has six world golds in her collection and the 28-year-old Californian showed why yesterday with a superb ride.
The previous night Chloe Dygert had outclassed the individual pursuit field to win her first world gold since 2020.
The Dutch men reclaimed their world title in the men’s team sprint as they avenged the loss last year to Australia which snapped their four-year domination.
Olympic champion threesome Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland trailed slightly over the first two laps but Hoogland’s last lap burst brought home the gold.
This year’s UCI World Championships is the first ever to combine all the cycle disciplines and the para events.
Britain’s para cyclists delighted the home crowd yesterday with a gold rush, led by Jody Cundy in the men’s C4 1km time trial. The 44-year-old, who had his right foot amputated when he was three, has now won an incredible 14 world kilo titles. He said racing on the same programme at the same time as the Olympic athletes was a massive step forward.
Today’s finals include the men’s team pursuit final with Denmark facing Italy in a repeat of the Tokyo Olympics final which Italy won.
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