Forres cyclist Lauren Bell claims triple sprint gold at Lloyds National Track Championships in Manchester to add to team silver at UEC Track Elite European Championships in Belgium
A triple British gold medal triumph has eclipsed Forres cyclist Lauren Bell’s European Championship silver this month.
The former Forres Academy pupil claimed her second silver medal at the UEC Track Elite European Championships in the women’s team sprint.
Then back home in the UK, the 25-year-old produced a dominant display in the Lloyds National Track Championships in Manchester at the weekend.
Three golds in three days meant a fantastic championships for Bell, starting with Friday’s win in the team sprint alongside Team Inspired A colleagues Rhian Edmunds and Lowri Thomas.
In the final they saw off team-mates Iona Moir, Rhianna Parris-Smith and Georgette Rand to win by a second and a half.
“Each ride we built on the experience we learnt from the previous one, we haven’t actually ridden together as a team so the first run was seeing how we went,” Bell told the British Cycling website. “We improved on each ride, so things are pretty exciting looking forwards.”
The following day she was back on her bike to storm to her third British kierin title, beating double World champion and triple Olympic medallist Emma Finucane into second place.
Lauren Bell (Team Inspired) secured her third national keirin title after a superb display of front-riding which saw her take the scalp of Emma Finucane (Team Inspired) in a fantastic curtain-closer to day two.
“I knew when it got to a lap and three quarters, I could go flat out then and hold on, so when it got to that point, I just thought I’m going to go, get my head down, hold on and it worked,” she said.
Finally on Sunday she completed a national hat-trick with her third sprint title, defending her sprint title after a close final showdown.
Bell qualified fastest from the heats and quarter-final, defeating Rand in the semis to match up with Edmunds for the gold.
Both cyclists left it late, sprinting in the final lap, with Bell taking the win in the first of three. Edmunds claimed the second by a bike length to set up a decider, which the Forres rider clinched in a close battle, cheered on by family from back home in Moray.
“It’s nice to have my family in the crowd to cheer me on,” she said. “I knew I had good legs coming in. I’ve got the speed and I’ve started to develop the tactics now. I tried to take each race as it came, and this is the result.”
The week before, Bell was in the Belgium town of Heusden-Zolder for the Euros and she was able to repeat the team sprint silver she achieved in Grenchen, Switzerland two years ago.
Alongside Edmunds and Rhianna Parris-Smith, she helped deliver Team GB’s first medal of the event.