On 15 October Italy won the silver medal in the women’s team pursuit at the Track World Championships in Shanghai. Chiara Consonni, Elisa Balsamo, Martina Fidanza and Vittoria Guazzini finished the final in 4’09”967, 5.357 behind Great Britain’s Erin Boothman, Anna Morris, Millie Couzens and Josie Knight, who took gold in 4’04”610.
It was a title to defend: a year earlier in Santiago, Chile, the Italian quartet had won gold. In Shanghai the Italians were reigning world champions and ended up second, after leading at the first kilometre and setting an Italian record a few hours earlier.
A final that started in front
On 15 October at 13.48 Italian time the two teams rode out for gold. Italy started stronger: at the first kilometre they had almost a second’s lead over the British.
Then the race turned. By the second kilometre Great Britain were already ahead, and in the final stretch they pulled clear. The overtaking in mid-race decided the final, and the Italians paid for their fast start in the closing laps.
The margin and the world record
The final margin is 5.357, a clear gap. Great Britain averaged about 58.9 km/h and did not improve the world record, which remains theirs: it is 1.802 faster than the Shanghai time.
Bronze went to Germany, who beat the Netherlands by a few tenths in the third-place final. New Zealand, China, France and Australia missed out on medals.
From the heats to the Italian record
The road to the final had been that of a team on the rise. In qualifying on 14 October Italy had finished third, behind Great Britain and Germany. In the first round on 15 October they rode a different race.
Against Germany the heat quartet, with Balsamo, Martina Alzini, Fidanza and Guazzini, won in 4’06”771. Italian record for the event, better than the time set at the European Championships in Konya in 2026, and the fastest of the round: the Germans tried to come back at the end and finished less than a second behind.
For the final the quartet changed: Consonni, who had been in the squad as a reserve, took Alzini’s place. Alzini remains one of the five world champions of 2025, and at the Shanghai World Championships she is also entered in the individual pursuit.
The four Italians on the podium
They are four road riders who have found a second career on the track, and each arrives with a different story. The group is young: Guazzini is 25, Fidanza 26, Consonni 27 and Balsamo 28.
Consonni and Guazzini, the Olympic pair
Chiara Consonni rides on the road for Canyon//Sram, with whom she has won twice in 49 race days this season. On the track she has an Olympic gold: gold at Paris 2024 in the madison alongside Guazzini.
Vittoria Guazzini is the youngest of the quartet and rides for Fdj United – Suez. With Consonni she won the Olympics and took world madison bronze in 2025; at the 2025 European Championships she also took home silver in the individual pursuit.
Balsamo and Fidanza, two careers between road and track
Elisa Balsamo has won six times in 48 road race days this season with Lidl – Trek. On the track she also has a European gold in the team pursuit from 2024 and a European bronze in the same event in 2026, in Konya.
Martina Fidanza, who rides for Visma | Lease A Bike, is the one with the most World Championships behind her: gold in 2022 in both the scratch and the team pursuit, silver in 2021 in the team event and bronze in 2024. In 2025 she also won European scratch gold.
A silver after the gold and the bronze
To see where Italy stand in this event, you only have to look at the last editions. At the 2023 World Championships in Great Britain and at the Paris 2024 Olympics the team finished fourth, one step from the podium. In 2024 at the World Championships in Denmark came bronze, with Fidanza, Consonni, Alzini and Guazzini.
In 2025 in Santiago came gold, with Alzini, Guazzini, Fidanza and Venturelli, ahead of Germany and Great Britain. Federica Venturelli, injured, was not in Shanghai: she was the one missing from the winning quartet.
Great Britain, who had climbed onto the third step in 2025, took the title back with a changed line-up: Morris and Knight were already there, with Boothman and Couzens arriving alongside them. Morris and Knight had also won the 2024 gold, when the British team finished ahead of Germany and Italy.
The Shanghai World Championships are not over
The Italian programme continues until 18 October. Consonni and Guazzini, Olympic champions, are entered in the madison and are among the favourites for a medal. Balsamo is entered in the omnium, Fidanza in the scratch and Alzini in the individual pursuit.
For many of them, then, this silver is the first act of a week, not the last.
For the pursuit quartet the next international deadline remains: defending a podium place that Italy have occupied in almost every recent season, and trying to win back what Great Britain took away in Shanghai.
The final
| # | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Britain (Erin Boothman, Anna Morris, Millie Couzens, Josie Knight) | 4’04”610 |
| 2 | Italy (Chiara Consonni, Elisa Balsamo, Martina Fidanza, Vittoria Guazzini) | 4’09”967 |
| 3 | Germany (Messane Bräutigam, Franziska Brausse, Lisa Klein, Mieke Kröger) | 4’10”554 |
| 4 | Netherlands (Nienke Veenhoven, Lorena Wiebes, Lisa van Belle, Sofie van Rooijen) | 4’10”803 |
Article written with the help of Mnemosyne.
Sources
- Results and times: Tissot Timing, official UCI timekeeper, «Track World Championships 2026».
- UCI, «Team pursuits: Italy and Germany enforce their collective strength».