2007 UCI World Track Championships
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Team Pursuit
Brad Wiggins leads the team on their way to a fabulous win.
Report
Finals: GB duly went out and won the gold medal in the Team Pursuit, which was pretty much expected after their qualifying dominance. However, they weren't content to just see off the Ukraine team. Instead they went out and gave it everything, breaking the national record again and recording the third fastest time ever with 3.57.9468. Only the Aussies have ever ridden faster and the way the GB quartet kept their technique together right to the end, finishing smoothly with all four men, suggests that this is a team which is able to repeat these sort of times. Their stunning fourth kilo time of 57.447 seconds supports this.
It was the GB team's second gold medal in the event, to go with their 2005 triumph in Los Angeles. For Geraint Thomas it was a first senior rainbow jersey to go with his junior Scratch Race title. How well he has fitted into the line-up alongside Manning, Clancy and the superb Bradley Wiggins.
Brad Wiggins, Geraint Thomas, Paul Manning and Ed Clancy.
Finals
Gold 1 GBR Great Britain 3:57.468 (CLANCY Edward, GERAINT Thomas, MANNING Paul, WIGGINS Bradley)
beatSilver 2 UKR Ukraine 4:03.280 (POLATAYKO Lyubomyr, POLISCHYUK Maksym, POPKOV Vitaliy, SHCHEDOV Vitaliy)
Bronze 3 DEN Denmark 4:04.093
beat
4 NZL New Zealand 4:06.591
Reactions from the Team Pursuit Riders:
Bradley Wiggins: “This was fantastic. That was probably one of the most pleasing World Championships I have ever won. The individual is one thing because you go through the whole thing yourself but I can’t express how much of a team we have been the last few months. After the departure of Simon Jones who was very much part of this team for such a long time and we have really pulled together. You have Chris Newton who is sitting up there who has been a team player the whole time and Rob Hayles too, and both were equally good enough to be in that team and go just as fast.”
“We have such strength in depth and it has been a fantastic team effort across the board, the back room staff is fantastic to be part of.”
Paul Manning “That helps our own confidence for next year because the world can see we have taken it up a level. You have to be consistent when you start doing those times because we are going to have to go quicker and quicker leading up to Beijing.”
“The time is irrelevant in a way as it’s the performance – two great performances in a day backs up what we did in the World Cup. We have always know we had it in us, it was just a matter of getting it out. Taking a step at time, we know we can do these World class times.”
Ed Clancy “Awesome, awesome ride, awesome time. We all agreed that we are out here to win and not all just go for a fast time. In this ride, we controlled the first two kilos like we did this morning and then just gone it. Once we caught sight of them, there was no stopping us then. We just raced it to the line.”
“We tried something new for man and it has been working pretty well in training. We decided to take the gamble and try it here and its worked well. It knocks a bit out of you but it means Brad and Gez have more time back in the line.”
This has been a long time coming and its nice to get the jersey but as Chris says, its not just about us four because there is Chris/Rob who have been a big part of this along with the back room staff. I was a bit nervous because of this when I was in the gate. That is usually Paul’s job but in training it went well.”
Finally, we asked did he expect this a few years ago when he went through a rough patch in training? “No, I thought I would be making houses or at university so it feels good now.”
Geraint Thomas When I said to 20 year old ‘G’ this rainbow jersey must feel better than his last one he got when he won the World Junior Scratch title, to which he cheekily replied (as expected) “yes, it has got long sleeves to keep my arms warm. It’s great though especially after last year and heels a lot of wounds from there. It’s a shame we didn’t have the Aussies. I reckon they need to buck their ideas up a bit I think!”
“It doesn’t get much better than this”.
“Going that much faster, it felt a lot better than this morning and because it was so smooth. That is definitely the best ride I have done in the Team Pursuit. It felt so easy and so strong at the end. I was hoping to do a lap and a half in there but it never happened.”
I said that it was quite something for a 20 year old like him to come out and go well under 4 minutes after GB have tried for years to be doing it and he said of his own performance “I think the work that Rod Ellingworth has done is the key on the Academy. You look at Jonny Bellis, Andy, Ben and the others. There is strength in depth across the board and that is going to push everyone else forward and we’ll move up a level.”
Finally, I told him it would be great to take a rainbow jersey back to his pro team, Barloworld to which he says “definitely, they are really happy for me to do this. They came to seem me last week at Manchester. They are really good and professional and the way its run, its like being in GB.”
Qualifying Round
The GB Team Pursuit quartet delivered another sub-four minute time as they qualified fastest and go into a ride-off for gold against the Ukraine, who recorded a time some five and a half seconds slower. Competition was fierce for the ride-off for bronze with five teams all within two and a half seconds of each other.
However, the GB performance - a new national record by a third of a second - was the real stand-out and with the only other teams to have dipped under four minutes - Germany and Australia - in the process of re-building their teams, GB will be looking to cement their place as the best in the world at this highly technical discipline.
The riders warm down on the rollers in the tunnel where its cooler.
Reactions
Geraint Thomas: “It’s the first time I have gone under four minutes which is pretty special. It was a totally different feel to training because we have been going so fast in training (above race pace) and the gear got on top of me and it felt like I was slowing every time I hit the front. But the lads with the splits say I didn’t so I suppose that is good for the final. I just have to get my head around the bigger gear. I think we may go quicker tonight as well if we get the catch.”
Ed Clancy who looked quite fresh after the ride as he rolled around had this to say “I was trying hard! I don’t think Geraint had a great day but the rest of us are going well and the time reflected that. I am sure Geraint will be going a lot better this afternoon as he usually does in the final. Towards the end there, Brad put in some long turns which helped us finish strongly in a controlled ride.”
Outside the GB pit, former Olympic Champion Chris Boardman was looking at the video analysis. Talking about it he said “Things have moved on a million miles since my Olympics. I have used analysis in other spheres like diver training as a running scenarios and then reviewing it visually as a medium that most people learn the most from. Trying to do it description wise, means different things to different people, but doing it from pictures, everyone is literally seeing everything on the same page and I think it is an incredibly useful tool particularly when you are working with such a technical event.”
“I think today’s Team Pursuit vindicates the whole philosophy of the team now. All the training and exercises have been on the edge. We’re going to work on the edge. Rather than get more in control, we are going to accept that we’re going to be on the edge and cracking and learn with how to deal with that and that is what you sort out there today.”
“There are different levels of physical development in the group by the time you got to half distance and that was the same as every other team. But what is different with the British team, is they have learnt to deal with that on the fly and you only do that by being absolutely under pressure all the time. It was fantastic.”
Results
Qualifying
1 Great Britain 3:59.579
(CLANCY Edward, GERAINT Thomas, MANNING Paul, WIGGINS Bradley)
2 Ukraine 4:05.039
(KONONENKO Roman, POLATAYKO Lyubomyr, POLISCHYUK Maksym, SHCHEDOV Vitaliy)
3 Denmark 4:05.307
(JORGENSEN Casper, MADSEN JensErik, MORKOV Michael, RASMUSSEN Alex)
4 NZL New Zealand 4:06.611 (BEWLEY Sam, GOUGH Westley, LATHAM Peter, RYAN Marc)
5 GER Germany 4:07.221
6 AUS Australia 4:07.447
7 NED Netherlands 4:07.775
8 RUS Russia 4:08.3089 ESP Spain 4:10.098
10 BEL Belgium 4:11.357
11 FRA France 4:13.021
12 ITA Italy 4:19.480
