Josie Knight, the former Irish international road and track rider, has been crowned European elite champion riding with Great Britain.
She was part of the British team pursuit line-up that beat an Italian quartet in the gold medal ride-off at the European Track Championships in Bulgaria on the second day of competition.
Knight rode with Katie Archibald, Neah Evans and Laura
Kenny; recording a time of 4:10.437 in the gold medal ride, more than three
seconds faster than rivals Italy.
The quartet collected their medals with a fifth rider, Elinor Barker, who rode in the qualifying and first round of the event.
Kenny noted it was the fastest the British team
pursuiters had gone since the Rio Olympics when they won the gold medal, and
singled out Knight for mention in her post-race remarks.
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“That’s the fastest time we’ve done since Rio, so that
shows the form that we were in going into an Olympic year,” she said.
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“It’s good to know we are still moving forward, Josie
(Knight) is here for her first European competition and that shows the way
British Cycling moves forward too.
“I personally think we’ve got a lot more to come, we’ve
got people sat at home itching to get into this team and that can only help us
move forward.”
Knight (23) rode for Ireland on the road and track and won a silver medal in the individual pursuit in the European Championships as a first-year junior riding for Ireland.
Having since switched allegiance to Britain, where she was born before moving to Ireland as an infant, she won silver as part of the British team pursuit line-up in the European Games last year.
Earlier this year she won the individual pursuit title, and team pursuit gold, at the British national track championships. She is now in contention for a place at the Olympics, where Britain will be gold medal contenders.
Ireland has not sent a team to the Europeans due to Covid-19, with several other European nations also deciding against competing, or selecting smaller teams than usual.
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