Great Britain made the ideal start to the European Track Championships in Grenchen as both the men’s and women’s pursuit teams eased through qualifying in first place.
Sir Bradley Wiggins led the men’s quartet alongside Steven Burke, Owain Doull and Andy Tennant as they breezed to the top of the timesheets in 3min 57.277sec and will next face Russia in their first-round heat.
Great Britain – the defending champions – led by 0.3 after the opening kilometre and stretched that advantage to 0.572 at the halfway mark. They eventually stopped the clock nearly two seconds clear of the host country, Switzerland, who finished in a time of 3:59.026, with France third quickest.
Earlier, the women’s team had turned in a dominant performance in qualifying, quickest by more than nine seconds.
Laura Trott, Ciara Horne, Elinor Barker and Joanna Rowsell Shand were three seconds up on Russia at the midway point and a stunning final 2km enabled them to stop the clock in a time of 4:21.089.
Horne told British Cycling: “It was a really good, solid team effort. We were trying a new strategy and it worked really well so we’re happy with that.”
Horne and her colleagues will face Poland in the opening round on Thursday.
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