ROUBAIX, France (Reuters) – Lisa Brennauer snatched her maiden individual world title on the track when she beat Franziska Brausse in a German clean sweep of the individual pursuit in Roubaix on Saturday.
The riders had joined forces to win the team pursuit title in northern France earlier this week, having also secured the Olympic title in Tokyo.
But on Saturday, it was each woman for herself as Brennauer led from start to finish to clock three minutes 18.258 seconds to prevail by more than four seconds.
Mieke Kroeger took the bronze medal by beating Italy’s Martina Alzini.
On a great day for Germany, Lea Sophie Friedrich bagged her second title of the championships as she retained her 500m time trial title after also winning the team sprint.
Ethan Hayter completed a British double in the omnium, winning three of the four races as he claimed gold one day after Katie Archibald prevailed in the women’s event to add to her Madison Olympic title.
There was also some drama outside the velodrome as some 20 bikes – 15 of them track cycling bikes – were stolen from the Italian delegation overnight.
“It was the work of well-organized professionals,” said the head of the Italian delegation, Roberto Amadio.
“We knew the difficulty, from this point of view, of the trip and that’s why we chose to stay in a hotel with a private and controlled parking lot but obviously it did not prevent the actions of these people.”
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
