Rio Olympian and 2015 World Champion Ashlee Ankudinoff with teammates Alex Manly (SA), Rebecca Wiasak (ACT), Amy Cure (TAS) won gold in the women’s team pursuit at the Cali round of the 2016-17 Tissot UCI Track World Cup series.

Australia qualified third fastest on Saturday, with a stunning time of 4 minutes and 21.580 seconds in the first round.

Speaking with Cycling Australia, Ankudinoff said of their round one time. “We treated it like our final and left it all out on the track so to look up and see that we had done a 4:21 we were very happy. “

In the ride for gold it was fastest qualifiers Italy who lead the race for the opening two kilometres but the experience of the Australian team kept the Italians within reach. After taking the lead during the third kilometre, the Italians began to fade and the Australian quartet kept control and claimed gold.

“The final ride was just like our previous ride. Smooth, controlled and we rode to our schedule. At the halfway mark Sutto [Gary Sutton] let us know where we were in relation to the Italian’s and I must admit it was quite tight heading into the final km.

“But heading into the final we knew that our back end was one of our strengths and we didn’t let the Italian’s rattle us by going out hard.”

The team now turns their attention to the Los Angeles World Cup next weekend with Ankudinoff pleased with the improvements the team is making.

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