Men’s Team Pursuit
Courtesy of British Cycling and Larry Hickmott.

There were two British teams in this event, the Olympic Academy riders racing for 100% ME with Luke Rowe, Mark Christian, Andrew Fenn and Erick Rowsell and the Great Britain team with Olympic champion Ed Clancy teamed up with Steven Burke (Olympic bronze medallist), Peter Kennaugh and Rob Hayles for the qualifying ride.

On a track deemed to be slow, except for Taylor Phinney perhaps, the 100% ME riders produced a time of 4.14 which was slower than expected but it was surprising how long it took for another team to go faster. Teams did though and the young lads ended up finishing in 8th place.

Great Britain however had a lot riding on their shoulders being Olympic champions but only one of that team was racing, Ed Clancy. Their coach Matt Parker had set them a fast schedule for the track, and they held it give or take a tenth to qualify fastest by a long way.

In the final against Spain, Chris Newton came in for Rob Hayles who has the Madison on Sunday and the schedule was even faster and so it proved as the GB foursome rattled the Danish boards yet again although not without a little blip as for the first time in a while, gaps appeared in the line in the closing stages. Steven Burke was putting in yet another blistering effort but it was a little too hot and Chris Newton had to keep the team ship steady and let it come together which it did very quickly and they carried on to record a 4.01 according to the score board.

Rider reactions:

Peter Kennaugh: “that is the fastest I have gone but it felt a lot easier than the qualifier this morning. We used the same gear but I felt on top of it so much more. I’m enjoying the team pursuiting. It feels quite straight forward to me and when we get to the second or third k when it really starts to hurt, that is when I enjoy it. Silver in Cali, Silver in Beijing and now Gold here – its good!”

Chris Newton: “The legs felt fine out there. Burkey is going really well and he put in a quick turn and I know he rode away from me, but I didn’t panic. I know it probably looked a bit ragged, but it was controlled. It is probably just down to the change between the Points and Team Pursuit, and something to work on and it was a good little benchmark and practice run before the Worlds.”

Ed Clancy: “it is not the fastest track to team pursuit on and there was only me from the team in Beijing so we can’t be disappointed with how we rode today. We treated this competition as a training camp and trained through it and only had a little taper.

Qualification

1 Great Britain 4.04.080 (58.997 km/h)

Steven Burke, Ed Clancy, Rob Hayles, Peter Kennaugh

2. Spain 4.08.465

3. Denmark 4.08.924

4. Lokomotiv 4.10.708

8. 100% ME

Finals

1 Great Britain

Steven Burke, Chris Newton, Peter Kennaugh, Ed Clancy (GBr)

2. Spain (caught)

Bronze

3. Denmark 4.05.501

4. Lokomotiv 4.09.270