Danish men's pursuit team beats powerful Italians at the cycling world championships

The Danish men's pursuit team avenged its loss to Italy at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday.

Just in time to send Denmark toward the next Summer Games with some momentum.

The team of Niklas Larsen, Carl-Frederik Bevort, Lasse Leth and Rasmus Pedersen trailed the Italians after the first 1,000 meters of the 4,000-meter race at the world championships in Glasgow, Scotland. But a more balanced Danish lineup pulled even by the halfway point, quickly went ahead and eventually stretched its advantage to two seconds by the finish.

Denmark stopped the clock in 3 minutes, 45.161 seconds to take the gold medal, which has eluded the proud track cycling nation for years. The Danes finished second to Italy in Tokyo and were third behind Britain and Italy at last year's world championships, but now they set their sights on next summer's Olympics in Paris as the favorites.

“I'm really exhausted but also, just all the adrenaline kicks in,” Bevort said. “It's really unbelievable that we're world champions.”

The Italian team of Filippo Ganna, Francesco Lamon, Jonathan Milan and Manilo Moro finished in 3:47.396 for silver, while New Zealand took advantage of a mechanical problem on the Australian team to cruise to the bronze medal in their showdown.

In the women's team pursuit at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, the favored British team inserted powerful Katie Archibald into its lineup in place of Megan Barker, and she helped the Olympic silver medalists claim gold at the world championships.

New Zealand led the British squad of Archibald, Elinor Barker, Josie Knight and Anna Morris early before falling behind at the halfway point. Britain pulled away over the final 2,000 meters to win by nearly five seconds in a time of 4:08.771.

France won its second consecutive bronze medal when it rallied to beat Italy, the defending world champions.

The world titles also were decided Saturday in downhill mountain biking, which is not a part of the Olympic program, over a rocky and highly technical course at Fort William in the western Scottish Highlands.

In the men's race, Britain's Charlie Hatton pulled off the upset by navigating the wet and deteriorating course in 4:26.747, a time that was two seconds faster Austria's Andreas Kolb, who had posted the second-fastest time in qualifying.

“I know Fort William rides really good in the wet, so I just attacked the same as yesterday," Hatton said. “I had some people in the woods that said the mud was really thin so there was still grip, and I just took my lines and yeah, had a really good run.”

Laurie Greenland gave the host nation two on the medal stand with his bronze, while two of the favorites failed to crack the top three. Five-time and defending champion Loic Bruni of France, who was fastest in qualifying, finished fourth and world No. 1 Loris Vergier, who claimed the bronze medal last year, finished in sixth.

In the women's race, Valentina Holl of Austria defended her title with a time of 4:58.242. The 22-year-old Holl, who started racing bikes when she was just 3 years old, was two seconds faster than Camille Balanche of Switzerland.

Marine Cabirou of France added a bronze medal to the silver she won two years ago.

“I was so tired today. I had no energy. And then I messed up a really important corner just before the pedaling section and I was like, ‘Oh, that's it. So stupid,’” Holl said with a smile. “Somehow I rode it out.”

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games