Great Britain crashed out of the men’s team pursuit on the opening day of the UCI World Cycling Championships in Glasgow, after the 26-year-old rider Charlie Tanfield fell in the qualifiers in the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome.
The defending champions looked set to breeze into the medal rounds before Tanfield’s crash reduced the starting quartet to only two riders, forcing their elimination from the competition. Although he walked away from the scene, Tanfield was taken to hospital and diagnosed with a concussion.
“Following his crash in this morning’s men’s team pursuit qualification, Charlie Tanfield was assessed immediately by the on-site medical team before being taken to hospital for further treatment,” British Cycling said. “Unfortunately, the men’s team pursuit riders will not progress in the competition.”
But in the evening sessions Will Tidball from Devon compensated for the disappointment of the team pursuit by taking the gold medal in the men’s scratch race, attacking out of the final bend to seal success.
Chloé Dygert of the USA won the women’s individual pursuit and Germany took the women’s team sprint from the British trio of Lauren Bell, Sophie Capewell and Emma Finucane with a world record time.
Meanwhile, it is understood that Biniam Girmay, Africa’s leading professional cyclist, has finally had a UK visa application granted, less than 24 hours after the Guardian highlighted that he and other Eritrean athletes were still awaiting a Home Office decision.
Girmay, a stage winner in the Giro d’Italia and also a winner of the Gent-Wevelgem in Belgium, finished the Tour de France on 23 July but crashed when racing in the San Sebastián Classic the following Saturday. Although he first applied on 1 June, his UK visa was only confirmed on Thursday morning.
Asked about the delays in visa applications that had affected Girmay and other Eritrean athletes, the UCI president, David Lappartient, responded: “It was a little bit late in the visa process and the visa was ongoing, but he had a crash and the reason, clearly, why Biniam Girmay is not here is due to the crash. It’s not due to a visa problem.
“We were following the situation with the UCI, with his national federation, with himself, with Glasgow 2023, with the British authorities.
“We were sure we would be able to find a solution, but he sent a message – and I saw the messages – saying that he’s not able to recover. He said: ‘If I come to the world championships, it’s to win and not to finish in the bunch and I’m not in good enough shape to win due to the crash.’”
In the track para-cycling events, Great Britain’s Jody Cundy became the second British para-cyclist to set a new world record in Glasgow in the men’s C4 omnium flying 200m. “I’ve been struggling to find a bit of speed lately but also I don’t get to do this event that often,” the 44-year-old said. “It was quite frustrating watching last year’s omnium and thinking I quite fancy a 200.”
Despite that his main goal remains the “kilo” in which he is targeting a 14th consecutive world title, as part of his buildup to the 2024 Paralympics in Paris.
Away from the championships, it was reported that Richard Freeman, the former British Cycling and Team Sky doctor, has told Ukad (UK Anti-Doping) that he will not be representing himself at a National Anti-Doping Panel to answer allegations of two breaches of anti-doping rules. As a result, Freeman could receive a four-year doping ban.
Freeman was struck off the medical register after a four-year inquiry into the delivery of testosterone patches to Team Sky and British Cycling headquarters in Manchester in 2011. He admitted that he lied to Ukad, his solicitor and his legal team, and to ordering 30 sachets of Testogel to be delivered to the British Cycling team HQ at the Manchester Velodrome.
Freeman could become the second doctor associated with Team Sky to be subjected to a ban after the team’s former medical consultant Geert Leinders was in 2015 given a life ban by anti-doping agencies for offences relating to the period before he worked with the British team.
Leinders worked for Sky on a consultancy basis in 2011 and 2012, having been hired in October 2010, after the team amended its publicly stated policy of not recruiting doctors with experience of professional cycling in an attempt to make a clean break with the sport’s doping past.
