GB team pursuit wins gold in Melbourne

Great Britain as underdogs beat the Aussies in final with a new world
record.

More to follow...
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Simon Mason

"Simon Mason" wrote in message
. uk...
Great Britain as underdogs beat the Aussies in final with a new world
record.

More to follow...
QUOTE:

Great Britain's men's team pursuit squad are the new world champions and set
a new world record of 3:53:295 to beat defending champions Australia in
Melbourne today. In the women's team sprint, however, Jess Varnish and
Victoria Pendleton lost their qualifier to Australia, and with Germany
having earlier set a new world record in that event, the British pair raced
for bronze against China but were beaten. A new-look British men's team
sprint line-up, with German-born Philip Hindes brought in, will race
Australia for bronze in that event, while France race Germany for gold.

In a thrilling men's team pursuit final, Great Britain and Australia were
neck and neck until after the halfway point of the race, but big turns by
Geraint Thomas and Peter Kennaugh saw the British quartet, which featured
Steven Burke in place of Andy Tennant who had ridden in the qualifier
earlier today, pull out a lead of just over eight tenths of a second at one
point.

Australia weren't finished, however, and came back strongly towards the end,
but Ed Clancy dug in deep to keep Great Britain in front, by 0.106 of a
second, the home nation also getting inside their own previous world record
time. In the bronze medal race, New Zealand had come back strongly in the
final kilometre to overcome Russia.

The Great Britain quartet of Tennant, Kennaugh and the two survivors of the
team that won gold at Beijing, Thomas and Clancy, had set the third fastest
time ever as they qualified first in a time of 3:54:485.

The final team out on the track was the world champions Australia, who knew
that there was a cushion of nearly five seconds between the British time and
that set by the next quickest country, New Zealand.

The four Australian riders, Glenn O'Shea, Jack Bobridge, Rohan Dennis and
Michael Hepburn, went off quickly but eased off towards the end, posting a
time of 3:54:654, itself the fifth quickest in history prior to the final.

http://road.cc/content/news/56213-wo...w-world-record

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Simon Mason