Mark Stewart and Neah Evans took electric wins in front of a sold-out crowd at the Grand Finale of the Track Champions League [TCL] in London, both slipping away into moves and winning their respective scratch races to ignite the 5,500-strong crowd in the Lee Valley VeloPark.
The Olympic velodrome from London 2012 was the venue for the final two rounds of the TCL, eleven years after it saw the same electric atmosphere welcome British legends to victory – Chris Hoy, Laura Trott and Victoria Pendleton, to name a few. The faces may have been different, but the electric atmosphere was all the same.
The Olympic velodrome roared every time a British rider moved, be that from the rider’s enclosure to the start line or one inch past their competitor in any race.
Stewart and Evans were the only British race winners on the night, with headline Briton Katie Archibald missing out on the individual races, but the superstar track rider did reclaim her overall TCL endurance title to similar acclamation.
Stewart’s victory brought the crowd to life early into the night’s proceedings after disappointing sprint heats for the home nation saw World Champion Emma Finucane knocked out of contention.
The Scot slipped away into a cooperative group of four and took the final scratch race of the Track Champions League and his first victory of the series, with compatriot Will Perrett completing a British one-two, much to the crowd’s delight.
The 20-lap race started with the eventual men’s endurance winner Dylan Bibic (Canada) keeping a close eye on scratch race World Champion Will Tidball, especially after the Brit closed the gap at the top of the overall in round 4 with a victory in the elimination race. They continued to cancel each other out allowing Stewart and Perrett to move off the front in the opportunistic winning move.
The quartet worked well in tandem, with Stewart saying he “felt like we were a team against the bunch,” staying away with seven laps left to race and fighting it out for the win with Bibic and Tidball forced to settle for sixth and tenth respectively.
“I knew with four laps to go we had a big enough gap, and I love that bit where you’re thinking – right, how can I beat these guys,” said Stewart admitting these were millisecond-long decisions in the heat of a race. “To be able to, in one lap, turn around that thought process and execute it is pretty cool.”
Stewart was surprised by the leaders successfully working together, admitting that…
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