Archibald leads Britain to team pursuit gold, Danes beat Italy

GLASGOW :Britain's Katie Archibald secured an emotional victory in the women's team pursuit at her home velodrome on Saturday as her quartet overpowered New Zealand for gold at the UCI World Cycling Championships in Glasgow.

Archibald, a stalwart of the British team, and fellow riders Elinor Barker, Josie Knight and Anna Morris were too strong as they delivered Britain's first women's world title in the blu-riband event since 2014.

Earlier at the Chris Hoy Velodrome, Denmark beat arch-rivals Italy in the men's team pursuit final - avenging their loss in the Olympic gold-medal showdown two years ago.

In a repeat of that Tokyo duel which Italy won in a world record time, this time Denmark reeled in the Azzuri.

The Danish quartet of Lasse Leth, Niklas Larsen, Rasmus Pedersen, Carl-Frederik Bevort trailed narrowly for the first half of the 16 laps around the Chris Hoy Velodrome.

But a massive acceleration took them ahead and unlike in Tokyo, when Filippo Ganna powered Italy to gold in thrilling fashion, Italy could find no storming finish.

Denmark also won the title in 2020 and were favourites going into the Olympics. New Zealand thrashed Australia to win the bronze medal.

Away from the velodrome on day three of the first combined World Cycling Championships, there was a stunning British win in the men's mountain bike downhill event at Fort William as Charlie Hatton produced a daredevil ride to snatch gold on a rain-soaked course.

Hatton, who has never even won a World Cup race, blasted down the course in 4:26.747 and then had to sit and watch 14 riders try to better his time.

One by one they failed with only Austria's Andreas Kolb coming close, but having to settle for silver, 0.59 seconds slower. Austria's Valentina Holl won the