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Cycling Weekly

Sport

Adam Becket

Two debutants in final Olympic squad for Team GB after Katie Archibald injury

Katie Archibald Team GB Lizzie Deignan Anna Morris GB (Geopolitical Entity) Elinor Barker Neah Evans Josie Knight Meg Barker Anna Henderson

Team GB's women's team pursuit team at the 2024 European Championships.

Olympic debutants Jess Roberts and Anna Morris will ride for Team GB, it was revealed, as British Cycling released the final riders selected for the Paris Olympics.

Notably absent from the line-up is Katie Archibald, who suffered a catalogue of injuries last month, breaking bones in her lower leg after an innocuous garden fall.

Also announced on Thursday afternoon was the women's road squad, which includes Lizzie Deignan, racing her fourth Olympics, and GB's BMX team.

It follows the first announcement from late June, which saw 21 athletes selected across track, road and mountain bike disciplines.

Without Archibald, an ever-present in GB squads at Olympics, World Championships and European Championships in the last decade, a reshuffle was required in the track endurance team for Paris. Roberts and Neah Evans come into the team pursuit squad which won gold at last year's World Championships in Glasgow, with Meg Barker, as a travelling reserve.

The full team is now Elinor Barker, Roberts, Evans, Morris, and Josie Knight. Evans, Knight and Barker were all silver medallists in Tokyo three years ago. Roberts was not riding in 2021, having taken a break from cycling, while Morris was working as a doctor in intensive care during the Covid pandemic.

It's not yet confirmed who will race the omnium, the discipline in which Archibald is a former world champion and current European champion.

Deignan will be joined in the road race by Morris, national road race champion Pfeiffer Georgi, and national time trial champion Anna Henderson. Henderson will take GB's sole spot in the time trial, which she will be a favourite for.

The BMX squad consists of world champion Kieran Reilly and defending Olympic champion Charlotte Worthington in the freestyle park discipline. Meanwhile, BMX racing Olympic champion Beth Shriever will defend the women’s title having recovered from a recent collarbone injury, while Kye Whyte will represent GB in the men's event, having won silver at Tokyo. Travelling reserves for BMX racing will be Ross Cullen and Emily Hutt.

"I’m hugely excited for each of and every one of the riders we have announced today to represent Team GB in Paris, which completes our team selection for the Games," Stephen Park, BC's performance director, said.

"We’re blessed with an incredible depth of talent and experience across all five of the cycling disciplines, and I know that the squad will benefit hugely from the likes of Lizzie Deignan and Elinor Barker who will join us for their fourth and third Games respectively.

"Achieving gender parity across the squad is something we’ve been working towards for a number of years, and I’m hugely proud of the work our support staff have done to support our three mums on the squad, who are blazing a trail for women at the highest level of elite sport.

"Our riders have delivered some of the most iconic and memorable Olympic moments of recent times, and I have every faith that our riders can inspire the nation once again at Paris 2024."

The cycling events at the Paris Olympics begin on 27 July with the men's and women's time trials, and conclude with the final races on the track on 11 August. The road races will take place on the weekend of 3-4 August, starting and finishing in front of the Eiffel Tower.