Despite having changed squads from the teams that won the gold at the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer, it was the same top result for Italy in the men’s race and Germany in the women’s.
The Italian men looked the strongest throughout qualifying and Round 1, with the newly drafted in Liam Bertazzo joining Olympians Simone Consonni, Filippo Ganna and Jonathan Milan. Their finals time of 3:47.192 was well short of their peak form time at the Olympics of 3:42.032 and slower than their world championships Round 1 time of 3:46.760.
“We listened to people at the track for support of the French, but we believed all race to the last metre [in our ability] and we are very happy,” said Ganna after the race. “Obviously, this rainbow jersey, after 25 years and in the same year as the gold medal in the Olympics is really important for us.”
There weren’t allowed to take it easily, with France offering a stern test well into the race, only falling apart in the final few laps, as they increased their pace and lost their third rider.
Thomas Boudat, Thomas Denis, Valentin Tabellion and Benjamin Thomas weren’t expected to challenge the Italians before the championships, but performed well as the home crowd spurred them on taking home their first world championships medal in the discipline since 2000.
Great Britain took the bronze medal with a new-look squad, beating Denmark, who fell apart in the final round and could not stay together, and won the bronze medal with Ethan Hayter, Ethan Vernon, Charlie Tanfield and Oliver Wood. It was a Denmark team with only one member of the team that took silver at the Olympics.
It was the first World title in the Men’s Team Pursuit for Italy in 24 years, last taking the title in back-to-back years in 1997 in Perth and 1996 in Manchester.
Germany won its second team gold in two days, building on the success of the women’s team sprint on Day 1. The German trio of Franziska Brausse, Lisa Brennauer, Mieke Kroger and Laura Seussemilch were close with their Italian rivals over the first kilometre, but gradually extended their lead for what was a dominant win by the finish. The Italian squad was comprised of reigning road world champion Elisa Balsamo, Martina Alzini, Chiara Consonni and newly crowned scratch race world champion Martina Fidanza.
It was the first time Germany has won the Team Pursuit gold at the World Championships, having won two bronze medals in the past 14 years. Their time of 4.08.752 didn’t come close to matching their world record set at the Olympics. That team also included Brausse, Brennauer, and Kroger, but it was a significantly slower meet in general.
The bronze medal matchup between Great Britain and Canada was won by the British with Katie Archibald, Neah Bates Megan Barker and Josie Knight taking out the race by over five seconds over the Canadians in a time of 4.17.359.
