'It's nice to get the gold' - Ollie Wood is European track champion in scratch race

The 27-year-old Tokyo Olympian, who has won a multitude of team pursuit gongs in his career, including a silver earlier this week, finally landed a big one, winning the scratch race gold medal at the European Track Championships in Grenchen, Switzerland, on Friday night.

Wood, part of Britain’s men’s team pursuit squad that took silver on Thursday, claimed his 10th European medal but first gold with a superbly timed attack in the scratch race.

Wood stormed around the outside of the pack as they passed the bell to signal the final lap and never looked like being caught as the 27-year-old sat up to celebrate before the line.

Wood said: “It all kicked off as soon as the gun went, the Portuguese attacked, a bit like track league style, so it made for a really hard race. The gas never really went off after that.

“Maybe three laps to go I knew that the front riders were coming back, and I was sort of judging whether I could bring them back myself, but fortunately I didn’t have to.

“It’s nice to get this, after winning the worlds last year. It’s another special skinsuit I get, which is nice.”

Katie Archibald added a 19th European title to her record tally with a display of pure dominance in the omnium as Britain celebrated two golds amid four medals on day three of the Championships.