'It's not about records' - Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald relish golden victory

Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald blew away the competition to write their names in history as the winners of the first ever Olympic women’s Madison.

It was a fifth career Olympic gold for Kenny, who surpassed Dutchwoman Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel to become the most successful female cyclist in Olympic history as she took gold at a third consecutive Games.

The 29-year-old now has six Olympic medals – the same as Charlotte Dujardin – but has two more golds than Great Britain’s equestrian star.

“I feel like we’re just making up these records as we go along!” Kenny said. “It’s not about the records, it’s about the race and I’m just so happy we won the bike race.”

They won it handily – taking 10 of the 12 sprints, including the double points on the last lap, and also gained a lap on the field to finish with 78 points, more than twice the tally of second-placed Denmark on 35.

Kenny and Archibald had already won three of the opening four sprints before their main rivals Holland – featuring double world champions Kirsten Wild and Amy Pieters – were hobbled by a crash which came as Australia’s Georgia Baker got in the way of a hand-sling.

Given the way Kenny and Archibald were riding, it perhaps made little difference. The Madison is a chaotic, messy, thrilling race, but Britain had sought to bring some order, and succeeded.

“Once the Madison came on the Olympic programme, people wound me up saying there’s no winning format for a women’s Madison,” Archibald said. “We thought, ‘well, we have to try’.”

The change came when Monica Greenwood replaced Paul Manning as women’s endurance coach in December. Manning delivered huge results in London and Rio but, as was Britain’s broader approach for so long, focused on the team pursuit with any successes in the bunch races seen as a by-product.

Manning had left selection for the Madison wide open – trying 14 different pairings in 20 different UCI events since Rio – but Greenwood tabbed Kenny and Archibald almost immediately after taking over.

She then roped in the men’s under-23s, who just happen to be coached by her husband Ben, to provide competition in training as the pair honed their tactics at a time when international racing was all but stopped.

“I just feel we worked so hard for this medal and I’m so glad it’s paid off,” Kenny said. “Monica came along and said, ‘we are half-heartedly committing to this medal. We need to absolutely commit’.

“She chose the partnerships so early on. And by doing that it just gave Katie and I the opportunity to really gel.”

After Wild’s crash, Archibald and Kenny joined attacks, first with the French, then with the Danish and Russian Olympic Committee teams, to keep collecting points as their distinctive bright yellow helmets cut through the field.

Their lead extended further when they were awarded 20 points for gaining a lap with a little over 20 remaining – effectively signalling to the competition there would be no way back.

Kenny had admitted she was unsure of her form after Britain took silver in Tuesday’s team pursuit final but, after this, she will go into Sunday’s omnium believing another gold is possible.

She said: “If the French hadn’t attacked and I hadn’t ridden across I would have said, ‘I don’t know’.

“But after riding across, I feel pretty confident… I felt like a switch had gone off in my head. I was like, ‘Oh my god, I can do this’. So yeah, I feel a lot more confident now than after that team pursuit.”

Whatever happens next, history will record Kenny and Archibald as winners of the first ever Olympic women’s Madison.

“I’m looking forward to going home and seeing whether someone has updated the Wikipedia page!” Archibald added.

“Because you do look at the records, and the first one at the top is 1908 or whatever, and now it will be 2021 and we will be right at the top.

“People are going to have to scroll past Great Britain: Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald. And that is pretty cool.”