Men's Team Pursuit
2008 World Track Championships - Day 2
Four happy men - from the left, Manning, Clancy, Wiggins and Thomas
MEDAL FINALS
GB won a truly sensational final of the Team Pursuit, never offering the Danes a chance to get into the race and going on to record a new world record of 3m 56.322s. From the start GB edged away lap by lap, never giving an inch. At the 1km mark they had half a second which they extended to just over a second at the half-way point. From there the gap grew steadily at a second a kilometre.
It was wonderful viewing. A full crowd roared their support and Brad Wiggins even had chance to wave to them with a lap to go from the back of the GB four. And the world record was greeted with perhaps the loudest cheer the velodrome has ever heard. All credit to the Danes, they stuck to their task and again went under 4 minutes to confirm their status as the new boys on the block in the event.
Gold Medal Ride-off
Great Britain (CLANCY Edward, THOMAS Geraint, MANNING Paul, WIGGINS Bradley) 3.56.322
beat
Denmark (CHRISTENSEN Michael Faerk, JORGENSEN Casper, MADSEN JensErik, RASMUSSEN Alex) 3.59.381
The bronze medal ride-off was going all Australia's way from the start and they looked likely to produce a sub-4 minute ride as they went into the last kilo in under 3 minutes. However, with a couple of laps to go, they lost their fourth man and at then the lead man hit a foam pad as he returned to the back of their line and lost contact with the other two riders. There was no time to re-group and they just staggered over the line to claim bronze ahead of the rapidly closing Kiwis.
Bronze Medal Ride-off
Australia (BOBRIDGE Jack, BROWN Graeme, JAMIESON Mark, MCGEE Bradley) 4.00.089
beat
New Zealand (BEWLEY Sam, GOUGH Westley, ROULSTON Hayden, RYAN Marc) 4.01.933
Coach/manager Shane Sutton is delighted with the Gold and world record from his boys in the team pursuit.
Shane Sutton is congratulated by event organiser Alan Rushton.
Left: Brad McGee, former World Record holder, congratulates Dave Brailsford, performance director of GB Cycling Team. Right: Paul Manning and Geraint Thomas shake hands after winning Gold and taking the World Record.
Matt Parker (coach), Bradley Wiggins, Ed Clancy, Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas and Shane Sutton.
Ed Clancy looks on as the team get a standing ovation from the crowd.
Team GB get underway in the final for Gold
The Aussies shake the hands of the GB riders, having lost their world record
Silver for Denmark, Gold for Great Britain and Bronze for the Aussies
Post Event Reaction From the GB Team
Ed Clancy: "I may not be a great road rider but I am part of the best team pursuit team in the world and it's where I earn my money. I have the hard job of starting them off and whilst Bradley does good things from third or fourth wheel, it takes more of a sprint type of athlete to do what I do."
By way of example, Ed told the press that in the past he'd finished second in the kilometre behind Jamie Staff: "I can do a reasonable kilo and do better if I trained for it. After this morning I would have taken a win anytime - this was one of the most stressful afternoons in my life. To get the world record is incredible. To it with these guys is unbelievable, Brad, Paul, G - we're best mates so its great."
Bradley Wiggins: "This is a very emotional moment for us being in Manchester. Going into two finals on the back foot like that and once you see that you have it is such a relief. Until then you concentrate on the schedule and the coach on the line. About four to go we started seeing them in the banking and I knew we had it. We concentrated on Shane the whole ride and he stands on the line, he walks one step towards us or one step away for every tenth of second we are up or down on the world record and he was bang on the line so we knew we were on world record pace the whole way through."
"We were pretty comfortable this morning. G suffered a bit because he started in man 2 and had a big job to do and he did really well but paid in the final kilometre but that was not a bad thing. We knew we could change the line up and drop G into four and Paul into two and we got together a ride like that."
"We have been thinking about the world record for a few weeks now and been training at that sort of speed on the track and it was just a case of putting it together over four kilometres. To win the second Gold feels great and we have a chance of another. That's my goal for Beijing ? to win two golds and get a third in the Madison."
"The big aim is always the Olympics but we prepared well for this. We have been affected by a couple of illnesses in the last six weeks which maybe put in doubt us doing a world record here so I can't believe it. A couple of boys (Ed and G) have had colds and I was on my death bed about five weeks ago but I soon recovered. I'm fine now and the form has got better and better."
On winning a third Gold in the Madison on Saturday, he says "we have nothing to lose so we'll just get stuck in!"
GB riding to a schedule in qualifying and ensuring they are there in the final
QUALIFICATION
There's probably never been a better Team Pursuit qualifying session than this. The standard was out of this world and times which would have won the world title in recent history were not event good enough for a place in the bronze medal ride-off.
There was early drama in the Team Pursuit qualifying when Columbia put in back-to-back 60 second kilometres and looked on course for a time just over four minute. However, they fell apart in the closing four laps, first losing their fourth rider (remember the team's time is taken on the third man) and then they dropped their third man a couple of laps out and he trailed in several lengths down.
And so it was left to the French to lay down a benchmark time as they produced a very smooth looking 4m 4.577s. The experienced Spainsh quartet couldn't quite match that, but things began to hot up as the Russian's, visibly working hard, went two tenths quicker.
The Dutch were the next team to watch, but they seemed off the pace right from the off and never truly recovered to record four minutes five seconds.
Then it was the Aussies, back to near full strength and a strong outside bet for the title if they could reproduce the kind of form which saw them lift the Olympic title in 2004. And they were easily the quickest through the first kilometre, going inside 64 seconds. Their second kilo was a very rapid 58.5s and they built on that with a 59.2 third kilo. Could they dip under four minutes? A 59.5 final kilometre put them just outside that magic mark, but with a 4.00.947, they had set up a really tough challenge for the teams till to come.
New Zealand flying in qualifying
The next team to really make an impact were the New Zealanders, who overcame a relatively slow start, which put them out of the top three after four laps, and really pushed on in the second half of their ride. It was clear they were on a ride when they went through 3km in 3.02.633, and went on to finish on a very classy 4.00.833 to knock the Aussies off the top, pulling back over a second on their antipodean rivals time in that final four laps.
Things were really beginning to hot up and the Danish team then had the crowd roaring as they posted the fastest first kilo of the event - 1.03.778 - and backed it up with a 57.5s second kilo. They lost a man at the 3km point, but dipped under three minutes for the distance. If they could hold it together they were on for a sub 4 minutes time, and how they took up the challenge, going across the line in 3.57.734, the third fastest time ever recorded and only a fraction behind GB's winning time in Majorca a year earlier. It was rapidly becoming the finest and fastest Team Pursuit competition in history.
Denmark shocked everyone with their pace
The Ukraine team couldn't quite join in the party, finishing with 4.07.086. Then, finally, it was the home team's turn. The GB quartet knew they had to go inside the New Zealanders to go into the final and they appeared to ride to a very tight schedule, matching the Danes through the first kilo and then just dropping slightly off their pace over the remaining laps to qualify very comfortably in a nonetheless superb time of 3.58.983. Coach Shane Sutton appeared to be pacing them with great precision and the four riders finished as tightly organised as they bagan. Bring on the final!
Aussie coach keeps an eye on the watch as his team race past to qualify fourth.
Ed Clancy and the GB team leave the start line on their way to qualifying second.
Qualifying
1. DEN Denmark (CHRISTENSEN Michael Faerk, JORGENSEN Casper, MADSEN JensErik, RASMUSSEN Alex) 3m 57.734s
2. GBR Great Britain (CLANCY Edward, THOMAS Geraint, MANNING Paul, WIGGINS Bradley) 3.58.983
3. NZL New Zealand (BEWLEY Sam, GOUGH Westley, ROULSTON Hayden, RYAN Marc) 4.00.833
4. AUS Australia (BOBRIDGE Jack, BROWN Graeme, JAMIESON Mark, MCGEE Bradley) 4.00.947
5. RUS Russia (IGNATIEV Mikhail, MARKOV Alexei, PETROVSKIY Alexander, SEROV Alexander) 4.04.310
6. FRA France (GAUDIN Damien, LADAGNOUS Matthieu, ROUSSEAU Nicolas, SANCHEZ Fabien) 4.04.577
7. ESP Spain (ESCOBAR ROURE Sergi, MAEZTU BILLELABEITIA Asier, MUNTANER JUANEDA David, TAULER LLULL Antonio) 4.05.138
8. NED Netherlands (HEIMANS Levi, HUIZENGA Jenning, MOURIS Jens, SCHEP Peter) 4.05.302
9. GER Germany (BARTKO Robert, BECKE Daniel, BOMMEL Henning, GRETSCH Patrick) 4.06.941
10. UKR Ukraine (POLATAYKO Lyubomyr, POLISCHUK Maksym, POPKOV Vitaliy, SHCHEDOV Vitaliy) 4.07.08611. Colombia (ALZATE ESCOBAR Carlos Eduardo, ARANGO CARVAJAL Juan Esteban, CASTRO LAVERDE Arles Antonio, PEREZ SUAREZ Jairo) 4.09.960
12. Korea (CHOI Jong Gyun, JANG Sun Jae, JUNG Jae Wan, KIM Dong Hun) 4.14.157
Photos
Korea
Columbia
France
Spain
Russia
Holland
Australia
Ukraine
