Archibald guided her team-mates to glory in Scotland as the quartet stepped up their preparations for Paris 2024
Katie Archibald inspired Great Britain’s women’s team pursuit to their first world title in almost a decade to lay down a marker less than a year out from next year’s Paris Olympics.
As the figurehead of the squad, Archibald led the pack from the start, setting a blistering pace that the New Zealanders simply could not match before breaking off to leave Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris to stop the clock in 4:08.77 and celebrate their first victory in the event since 2014.
As Archibald slowed her pace around the wooden boards of the velodrome, it felt as if the whole of Glasgow had risen to their feet to applaud their sporting heroine, aware of how poignant this victory must have felt.
Not only had the two-time Olympian won her fifth world title in her home city, but it was her first since the death of her partner Rab Wardell, the former Scottish mountain bike champion, who died after suffering a cardiac arrest in his sleep last year.