Track Cycling

National Track Championships: Reade wins first British title, Kenny takes keirin – BBC Sport


Shanaze Reade and Blaine Ridge-Davis at the National Track Cycling Championships
Shanaze Reade (left) and Blaine Ridge-Davis have been training together for four months

Shanaze Reade won her first National Track Championships title on Sunday, while six-time Olympic champion Jason Kenny also won despite a huge error.

Two-time world champion Reade, 30, retired in April 2017, but returned last year and took the women’s team sprint alongside Blaine Ridge-Davis.

Kenny, the 2016 Olympic keirin champion, sat up a lap early in his heat and had to race in the repechage.

“I didn’t think it was the last lap but I thought I’d heard the bell,” he said.

“I don’t know if someone dropped a spanner but with me being at the back I just reacted and lit it up and I thought it was going to be one of those days.”

Kenny came through the extra race to reach the final and produced a terrific sprint finish to pip Jack Carlin on the line.

Reade, who won her team sprint world titles with Victoria Pendleton in 2007 and 2008 and has also won four BMX world titles, said: “It is my first national title in any discipline.

“I’ve got my world and European jerseys – so it means a lot to me to get the collection of them all.”

Reade, who competed in BMX at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, initially retired after failing to make the 2016 Rio team, but has been back training for four months.

Of her racing partner Ridge-Davis, Reade said: “She has real star quality, she’s going to go all the way.”

Ridge-Davis, who in July 2017 became the first British rider to win the junior women’s European BMX title since Reade in 2006, added: “We’ve had about four months together and it’s a privilege to ride with Shanaze.

“When I was eight years old I had a picture of her on the side of my helmet. She was my idol as a kid.”

Neah Evans gained an early lap on the field to win points race gold, while Ethan Hayter took the men’s scratch race title.

Ellie Coster won the women’s 500m time trial and the quartet of Charlie Tanfield, Jonny Wale, Dan Bigham and John Archibald claimed the men’s team pursuit title.