Italy’s Elia Viviani came out on top in the men’s elimination race on the opening day of the European Track Cycling Championships in Dutch city Apeldoorn.
Viviani, the Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallist in the omnium and reigning European road race champion, triumphed ahead of France’s Bryan Coquard and Poland’s Filip Prokopyszyn at Omnisport Apeldoorn.
Also held today was the women’s scratch event, with Great Britain’s Emily Nelson taking victory.
Ireland’s Shannon McCurley was the runner-up, while Portugal’s Maria Martins came third.
In the men’s team sprint, hosts The Netherlands’ Jeffrey Hoogland, Harrie Lavreysen and Roy van den Berg beat Britain’s Jack Carlin, Jason Kenny and Ryan Owens to victory with a time of 42.151sec.
The British trio had to settle for the silver medal after finishing in 42.822.
The bronze medal went to France’s Grégory Baugé, Quentin Lafargue and Sébastien Vigier after they held off Germany’s Marc Jurczyk, Eric Engler and Maximilian Levy.
A time of 43.206 proved to be good enough for the French, with the German threesome posting 43.600.
The women’s team sprint saw Russia’s Anastasiia Voinova and Daria Shmeleva defeat Germany’s Lea Sophie Friedrich and Emma Hinze in the battle for the gold medal.
Voinova and Shmeleva clocked a time of 32.496, bettering that of Friedrich and Hinze by a margin of 0.683 seconds.
Home cyclists Kyra Lamberink and Shanne Braspennincx were the bronze medallists ahead of Lithuania’s Simona Krupeckaitė and Miglė Marozaitė.
Lamberink and Braspennincx finished 0.347 seconds clear of their opponents with a time of 33.023.
