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Italy’s Chiara Consonni and Vittoria Guazzini claimed the gold medal in the women’s Madison after a poised and confident performance in the Paris Olympics.
The team won three of the 12 sprints in the 120-lap race, then used a late attack to lap the field, earning 20 points for that feat. Together, the tally came to 37 points, six more than their nearest rivals, defending Olympic Madison champions Great Britain.
Great Britain’s Elinor Barker and Neah Evans, taking the torch from Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald, missed the winning move but amassed 31 points with a consistent performance that they capped off with a late attack to take home the most lucrative sprint at the finish to win the silver medal.
The British team just managed to get ahead of the Netherlands’ Maike van der Duin and Lisa van Belle – two young newcomers to the Olympics, who stole a lap with 48 laps to go to move into the lead but only scored eight points in sprints for a total of 28 – 10 more than fourth-placed Jen Valente and Lily Williams (USA).
Britain were in the lead at the midpoint of the race with 14 points on the US pair, but slipped to second after the Dutch team lapped the field before sprint number eight. The Brits took the eighth sprint but Italy attacked straight away afterward and powered clear ahead of a field full of tired legs.
The Italians stayed…
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