Jody Cundy won a remarkable 14th consecutive world kilo title as Britain’s para-cyclists enjoyed a golden night on the second day of the UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow.
Neil Fachie, racing on home boards in Scotland, claimed a 17th world title, piloted to glory by Matt Rotherham in the men’s B kilo time trial ahead of fellow Brits James Ball and Steffan Lloyd, before Jaco Van Gass pipped team-mate Fin Graham to gold in the men’s C3 kilo time trial.
Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl then made it two golds in as many days as they beat fellow Brits Lora Fachie and Corrine Hall in the women’s B individual pursuit.
These combined ‘super’ world championships are the first in which the track cycling and para-track cycling has been fully integrated, and the Brits took full advantage of the partisan home crowd as Fran Brown and Daphne Schrager also picked up silver medals.
Cundy has owned the men’s C4 kilo crown since making his debut in 2006. But after a spell of injury and illness the 44-year-old has considered stepping away from the sport in recent months before rediscovering his mojo and using it to claim yet another rainbow jersey.
“It’s probably the best one purely off the fact I’ve had an absolute shocker of a year,” Cundy said. “I’ve been properly low, depression, just things in life but I’ve had massive support from the team, my fiancee, kids, my mum and dad and a great network within British Cycling…
“It was getting to a point where I had absolutely no motivation every time I got on the bike and it was getting harder and harder and I just wasn’t looking forward to it…
“But thankfully I’ve kind of turned my world around and here we are with another world title in the bag. This is probably the best one.”
Cundy said next year’s Paraylmpics is likely to be his swansong but, having just ridden his best time at sea level at 1 minute 3.648 seconds, he added: “You can’t say never, and if I’m getting better then it will be hard to walk away.”
“If I get to Paris and I can get on the podium or whatever, it would be a nice way to go out.”
Crowd favourite Fachie took a 17th career world title, and credited the Glasgow crowds with spurring him on as he and Rotherham needed a big push in the final few laps to beat Ball and Lloyd by 0.042 seconds.
“This is my first big race (back at the velodrome) since 2014 and the Commie Games which was one of the absolute highlights of my career so just to be back here is amazing, and it’s a first world title with my son in the crowd watching so that was special too.
“The crowd was amazing, that’s the reason we won today. We’ve got no idea on the bike if we’re up or down (on time), all we could hear was the crowd roaring.
“I assumed we were going really well because they were cheering, I had no concept of us being behind but the crowd got behind us and we just nicked it.”
Van Gass took his fifth world title as he beat Graham by 0.263seconds, and then soaked in the adulation of the crowd.
“It really is amazing,” the 36-year-old said. “Every time a British rider steps to the plate the crowd goes wild and honestly I needed them today, they drove me through it. It’s a great experience and what the sport deserves.”
Unwin and Holl won the women’s B kilo on Thursday, and doubled up with a convincing win over Fachie, who is married to Neil, and Hall.
“We knew how the race was going to go, we knew we would be behind in the first half and hopefully bring it back and to be able to execute that how we wanted to was amazing,” Unwin said.
“Yesterday it was nice to see the endurance and the speed in our legs and that gave us the confidence to know we could come in today and do what we wanted.”
