Vittoria Guazzini and Chiara Consonni of Team Italy celebrate after the Women's Madison Final at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome in Paris, on Aug. 9.Alex Broadway/Getty Images
The Italian team of Chiara Consonni and Vittoria Guazzini gained a lap on the field and won enough points in intermediate sprints to win the Olympic title in the women’s Madison in track cycling at the Paris Games on Friday night.
The Italians finished with 37 points, including the 20 they earned for gaining a lap on the field, while the favoured British team of Elinor Barker and Neah Evans took silver with 31 points. Maike van der Duin and Lisa van Belle of the Netherlands were the only other team to gain a lap and finished with 28 points to earn the bronze medal.
In the Madison, which was added to the Olympic program for women at the Tokyo Games, riders work in teams of two as they try to accumulate points in intermediate sprints or by lapping the field. Only one rider is considered in the race at a time, though they can tag out at any point, usually by grabbing their teammate by the hand and flinging them forward.
The result is 120 laps of chaos where fans, coaches and even riders at times have no idea who is leading the race.
The race, which is named after its originating venue – Madison Square Garden in New York – was led most of the way by the British team, which won gold with different riders in Tokyo. But the Italians went on the attack with 38 laps to go, eventually caught the back of the field to get their 20-point bonus and held on through the final 26 laps of the race.
Still to come on Friday night are the medals in the men’s team sprinting competition.
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