2023 Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup: Brits seal the deal in Milton

Great Britain dominated the final round of the 2023 Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup, at the same time taking overall victory after the three rounds in Jakarta (Indonesia), Cairo (Egypt) and Milton (Canada).

British riders are firing on all cylinders ahead of the inaugural UCI Cycling World Championships, to be held in August in Glasgow and across Scotland. The latest show of strength from the stars of British Cycling was in Canada, as Katie Archibald and her compatriots delivered dominant performances in the final round of the 2023 Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup, hosted in Milton’s Mattamy National Cycling Centre. They took the overall victory ahead of the French selection, who had led the standings after the first two rounds in Jakarta (Indonesia) and Cairo (Egypt).

Great Britain’s athletes rose through the ranks throughout the series, scoring 9,899 points in Jakarta, 10,844 in Cairo and finally 11,413 in Milton for a total of 32,156 points. Germany took second place (29,898 points), with France dropping to third (27,558). Sixty-two different teams scored points throughout the three rounds.

Fireworks provided by Canada’s Olympic Champion

The home crowds had plenty to celebrate, with Canadian stars powering to three medals in the women’s events: gold in the individual sprint, silver in the team sprint and bronze in the team pursuit. 

The heroine of the weekend was Kelsey Mitchell, delivering on the high expectations that came with the Olympic gold medal she had claimed in the individual sprint at Tokyo 2020.

In Milton, Mitchell dominated Colombia’s Martha Bayona Pineda in the final of the individual sprint, she partnered up with Lauriane Genest and Sarah Orban for silver in the team sprint (gold went to Mexico’s Luz Daniela Gaxiola Gonzalez, Jessica Salazar Valles and Yuli Verdugo Osuna) and cheered for Erin Attwell, Ariane Bonhomme, Maggie Coles-Lyster and Sarah van Dam, who claimed bronze in the team pursuit.

“I can’t explain how amazing it is to look around and see all the Canadian flags and familiar faces and everyone cheering your name,” Mitchell rejoiced. “It’s really special.”

Archibald, Richardson, Grondin… Stars shine ahead of the UCI Worlds

While Canadians shared great joy with the crowds, British athletes were dominant as well, most notably thanks to Katie Archibald. Following her three gold medals in February’s UEC European Track Championships (making 20 Continental titles to her name), the Scottish icon took three medals in Milton: gold in the omnium and the team pursuit (alongside Megan Barker, Neah Evans, Josie Knight and Jessika Roberts), and silver in the Madison (also with Neah Evans, another Scot who can’t wait for the UCI Cycling Worlds.)

The British tally in Milton was completed by another gold, in the men’s team pursuit (Daniel Bigham, Josh Charlton, Michael Gill and Oliver Wood), and two bronze medals; in the men’s team sprint (Harry Ledingham-Horn, Ed Lowe and Hayden Norris), and in the women’s keirin (Katy Marchant).

More outstanding performances were delivered by Australian sprinter Matthew Richardson, claiming gold in the keirin and the team sprint (with Matthew Glaetzer and Leigh Hoffman). The young star had to settle for bronze in the individual sprint, won by Trinidad and Tobago’s Nicholas Paul, who trains at the UCI World Cycling Centre in Aigle, Switzerland. Other winners in Milton were France’s Donavan Grondin (men’s omnium), Dutchman Matthijs Bückli (men’s elimination), Portugal’s Ivo Manuel Alves Oliveira and Iuri Leitao (men’s Madison), Belgium’s Shari Bossuyt and Lotte Kopecky (women’s Madison) and Norway’s Anita Stenberg (women’s elimination race).

The points they amassed count towards qualification for both the UCI Worlds and the Olympic Games. They can now gear up for their biggest rendez-vous of the year, the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships, where the track events will be hosted in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.