The father of Pete Kennaugh, a member of Great Britain’s world record breaking team pursuit quartet, has celebrated “an amazing day for Manx cycling”.
Peter Kennaugh Snr, one of the team behind the 3LC series of coaching DVDs, said he was delighted after a day on which his son and Great Britain teammate, Ben Swift, another Manx cyclist, added to the island’s collection of rainbow jerseys, and Manx Missile, Mark Cavendish, the world road race champion, celebrated the birth of his new baby daughter, Delilah Grace.
Pete Kennaugh jnr had earlier ridden to gold in the men’s team pursuit with Steven Burke, Ed Clancy, and Geraint Thomas, seeing off the challenge of the Australian quartet with a new world record time.
His father told RoadCyclingUK: “I was delighted. I didn’t expect GB to win. Peter said they would. It was probably the best team pursuit I’ve seen. I didn’t know which way it was going to go, but towards the end I could see the cracks beginning to show in the Australian team and I thought, ‘We’re going to do this.’
“Then Swifty [Ben Swift, world Scratch race champion] got the jersey in the next race. It was a double hit today. And then there’s Cav with his daughter. It’s been an amazing day for Manx cycling,” he said.
Allan Bell, the Isle of Man’s chief minister, had been on the radio to congratulate his son, he added.
“Peter’s really over the moon. He just wanted to get the stripes of world champion. He sent a text to his mum, Jackie, and told her about the world record. He said he’d never had a Manx record, but his mum had, so they had a bit of banter there.”
“It’s job done now,” he continued. “It’s taken a fair chunk out of Peter’s road season. He can come home now and prepare for the Tour of Italy, and then it’s the Olympics – that’s the big one,” he said.
