And that is very much your lot! It’s been a rollercoaster, and at the end of it all Britain and China have a gold each, Australia and Russia have a silver apiece, while Germany and Denmark can add a bronze to their tallies. Along the way, Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner both progressed to the 1/8 finals of the men’s sprint in some style – the only other nation with two representatives left in that competition is Australia, who have Patrick Constable and Matt Glaetzer in the hunt (Constable and Skinner will go head to head in the second race tomorrow). It’s been a blast. Bye!
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The BBC grabs a quick word with the remainder of the winning team:
Owain Doull
It’s just surreal. That’s been so close and we’ve always lost, to pull it off now is unbelievable.
Steven Burke
I really wanted us to defend the title. We’ve had so many highs and lows but it’s all come together at the right time. I’m just so happy.
Bradley Wiggins
It’s hard not to just spout a load of cliches and emotional stuff. The last six months we’ve done everything together, all for this. We’re here and we’ve done it. These four guys here, I would never have come back if we didn’t have the calibre. When you’re with guys like that on the line, it makes your job a hell of a lot easier. I kept it all in check, went through to process, one step at a time, not thinking about gold. And that’s hard, when all your team-mates are winning gold in front of you. Just fantastic.
Ed Clancy speaks!
This is the best of them all. Truth be told we haven’t won a fat deal between the London Olympics and now. Crossing the line there ahead of the Aussies has made every pedal rev and every training session worthwhile. We’ve been through the mill a bit.
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The winning time was 3:50.265. After 2,000m Australia led by 0.695 seconds, but that’s when the tide turned. With 1km to go the difference was 0.09 seconds, and by the end Australia were 0.743 seconds behind!
Great Britain set a new world record, and win gold!
What a race! What an absolute thriller!
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The British trio have split!
Now Britain lead, by 0.083sec!
The British have caught them! Just .090 between them!
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The world record is going down. It won’t have lasted long. Britain are coming back into it!
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Now 0.666 seconds in it! Australia are stretching their lead!
After one lap, Australia are o.4sec ahead!
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They’re off! Who will be celebrating in four minutes’ time? We’re, um, about four minutes away from finding out!
If you’re wondering why the team pursuiters are hitting faster times in the velodrome tonight than they did in yesterday’s qualifiers, here are a few hypotheses:
- Tonight the teams are competing against each other rather than simply riding their own race one at a time. That brings an advantage for the faster team in the pairing, because they can benefit from what British Cycling (BC) refer to as “circulating air mass”. In other words, slipstream. The faster team can get into their rivals’ slipstream, even if they are still some way from lapping them. The boffins at BC reckon the advantage can be worth 20-30watts. That’s what they call a marginal gain.
- Someone might have shut the velodrome doors. It certainly feels hotter in here tonight. Dame Sarah Storey reportedly reckons she narrowly failed at breaking the women’s hour record because someone opened the doors in the velodrome in London.
- They’re trying a bit harder.
So there is but one remaining question to answer: should Great Britain have saved up their world record-smashing performance for when it really mattered, or do they have another one in them?
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And by the end there is very nearly three seconds between them. Denmark finish in 3:53.789, New Zealand 2.964 seconds in arrears.
This is totally emphatic. Not even close.
Both teams are down to three, and New Zealand have got a lot of catching up to do – the gap is now 2 seconds!
2500m raced, and the difference is nearly 1.8 seconds.
1500m raced, and there’s a second and a half between them.
After just a few laps, New Zealand are over a second behind. Have the Danes gone too fast, too soon?
Denmark and New Zealand are on the track. One of them will be Olympic medalists very shortly. The other will be a bit gutted.
And now … medals!
Italy split apart with six or so laps to go, and though the Germans do the same, they do it later. “The Germans are in a similar mess, they’re just doing it more quickly,” says Chris Boardman.
And then some other super laps to extend it.
And no sooner do I type that, than Germany put in a super lap to open up a gap.
This one is much closer – there’s nothing much between the teams, with 2km gone.
Three races left this evening, then. Two of them will decide medals. The other, and next, will see Germany and Italy compete for fifth place.
There are no angry faces on these Chinese riders’ helmets, for some reason. There are angry faces under the helmets, however, as they’ve just taken the wooden spoon. The Swiss win in a time of 4:01.786, more than 11 seconds slower than the world record time set by Great Britain earlier this evening.
And so to the final event of the evening, the men’s team pursuit. We’re going to build our way gently towards the gold medal match, starting with Switzerland and China facing off for the coveted seventh position.
Pervis finishes way behind the other two, all by himself. The other two have quite the humdinger of a sprint, which Fabian Puerta is leading at the end!
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Finally, then, François Pervis, Rafal Sarnecki of Poland, and Fabián Puerta from Colombia.
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Constable spends most of the race in the lead, and holds on to it until the end. Damian Zielinski pushes his way between the others, having been third with a lap to go, and pushed the Australian all the way, but couldn’t get past him, and Chris Boardman thinks he would have been relegated anyway.
Next up: Australia’s Patrick Constable, Poland’s Damian Zielinski and Pavel Kelemen of the Czech Republic.
And Levy wins it! Phillip dropped away in the last couple of laps, leaving the other two to fight it out. Dawkins attempts to overtake in the home straight, but is still half a wheel behind when they cross the line.
The first features Max Levy, Njisane Phillip and Eddie Dawkins, who only got off his bike a couple of minutes ago.
Now for the men’s sprint 1/16 final repechages. There will be three heats, each with three riders. The winners are back in the hunt, going through to the 1/8 finals. The non-winners, meanwhile, are out.
China win gold in the women's team sprint
Not, in the end, so close after all. China start better, and stay better. With a final time of 32.107 seconds, nearly 0.3sec faster than the Russians, who finish in 32.401.
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China and Russia are already on the track, moments away from starting their gold final. This one is – theoretically at least – on a knife edge.
Germany get the bronze!
But crikey, it was close! The difference was just 0.022 seconds!
Now for the night’s first medals! It’s been quite the preamble, it’s got to be said. Australia and Germany come out first, with a bronze medal on the line.
Sam Webster was in control of that one throughout, pulled well clear with a lap and a half to go, and Dawkins couldn’t get anywhere near him.
And François Pervis, the world record holder, is beaten, and will have to come through the repechages if he’s to get himself a medal. Now for the completely Kiwi contest, to finish the individual sprinting for the time being.
China’s Xu Chao beats Njisane Phillip, and Germany’s Joachim Eilers gets a nose ahead of Damian Zielinski of Poland after a particularly tight battle. There are two more heats to come, with Jeffrey Hoogland and Francois Pervis facing off in the first of them.
Grégory Baugé books his place in the next round, rather outclassing the Czech Republic’s Pavel Kelemen.
Denis Dmitriev, after a bit of a scare, beats Poland’s Rafal Sarnecki. The big losers of the men’s sprint so far, incidentally, are New Zealand, whose two representatives, Sam Webster and Edward Dawkins, face each other in the ninth and final heat. The loser still has a chance to medal, but it doesn’t help that one of them will definitely have to try their luck in the repechages.
Australia’s Matt Glaetzer overtakes Fabian Hernando Puerta Zapata of Colombia in the home straight and takes his place in the next round.
Skinner holds him off, and the two Britons are safely through to the 1/8 final. Great event this, it’s worth finding a TV and turning it on sharpish, but there’s more of this tomorrow, with the medals decided on Sunday.
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This time the Briton takes the lead at the start, heading off gently with his eyes over his shoulder on Constable.
Kenny goes through! It’s a nervy affair, the sprint, with one rider lurking behind the other at slow speed, until he decides he’d better try to overtake and they both head off at full speed. Kenny was losing until the final 50m, when he made the killer move. Now, then, for Callum Skinner, who faces Australia’s Patrick Constable.
And so, with barely a drawing of breath, to the 1/16 finals of the men’s individual sprint. Jason Kenny goes in the first heat, against Maximilian Levy of Germany. The winners go through to the 1/8 finals, the losers, well, don’t – they have some repechages instead.
China set a new world record!
Well that wasn’t much of a race. China become the first team to go below 32 seconds, finishing with a time of 31.928. The previous world record was 32.034, set by China last year.
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Russia rather wipe the floor with Canada, and their time of 32.324 is the fastest of the night, guaranteeing them a place in the gold medal race. So China need to beat Spain and finish in 32.805sec or less to set up the anticipated final.
A riposte from Mark Cavendish to Helen Pidd’s earlier story, as on the track one of the Canadians, Kate O’Brien, falls over when supposedly being held by a starting gate.
Some reports that I'm refusing to warmup tonight at the velodrome 😂A bit early when I'm racing Sunday! Good luck to my teammates! Smash it!
— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish) August 12, 2016
This seems surprisingly low key. Anyway, Germany have beaten France, but their time was slower than Australia’s – 32.806.
And Australia have won the first heat, beating Holland, with a winning time of 32.636. Next up is Germany v France, then Russia v Canada and finally China v Spain.
Next up, the first round of the women’s team sprint. They need to win, and do it quickly – the two fastest winners will race for gold, and the two slowest winners for bronze. Losers can come no higher than fifth, even if – as is theoretically possible – their time is faster than that of the team that ends up winning.
Sir Bradley Wiggins becomes the most decorated Olympian in British history by guaranteeing himself at least a silver after the British men’s pursuit team pulverise New Zealand to earn a place in the gold medal match against Australia. There’s rapturous applause from the huge British contingent in the velodrome. They set a new world record of 3min 50.570sec in the process, way faster than the Australians.
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Denmark and New Zealand will race for bronze, with the others battling out for the lower positions.
Great Britain break the world record!
Britain will face Australia for gold, having broken the world and Olympic record they set in London four years ago by more than a second, with a time of 3:50.570!
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1km to go, and the gap is over two seconds now …
2km down, and the British haven’t noticeably extended their lead in the last 1,000m, but are over a second ahead.
Britain lead after 1km, by a decent margin.
So, who will face them in the final? The last heat has just begun, between Great Britain and New Zealand.
Australia will race for gold!
Denmark get all ragged in the final lap and a half, their leading rider pulling well clear of the other two, and that split gave Australia a chance, which they took! The difference in the end was 0.113sec, Australia finishing in 3:53.429.
Frederik Madsen has dropped out early for Denmark, but they are still in the lead, with 500m to go.
Denmark and Australia have started their heat, racing for a place in the gold final. The Danes have made marginally the faster start, but they are only a quarter of the way through.
Italy come home in a time of 3:55.724, having overtaken China on the way. It’s the fastest time so far, and they will therefore be in the bronze final unless all four remaining teams beat it.
It would help to know the rules. As you’ll notice, only the teams in heats three and four have a chance of gold, with the losers of those heats, and everyone in all the others, then being ranked according to their times, with the two fastest facing off for bronze. Or, as the official Rio 2016 website has it:
The winners of heats 3 and 4 in the First round ride the final for the gold and silver medals. The remaining six teams will be ranked by their times in the First round and will be paired as follows: The two fastest teams ride the final for the bronze medal. The next two fastest teams ride the final for 5th and 6th places. The last two teams ride the final for 7th and 8th places.
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In fact, the BBC were just hiding the fact that it’s already begun. Germany beat Switzerland in the first heat, in a time of 3:56.903. China and Italy are on the track as I type.
Onwards, then, and the men’s team pursuit is due to have started 15 minutes ago, so will presumably kick off in a hurry. There are four heats in the first round, with the teams paired as follows:
Heat one: Germany & Switzerland
Heat two: Italy & China
Heat three: Denmark & Australia
Heat four: Great Britain and New Zealand
The men’s sprint qualifying results mean that, if the two British riders keep winning, they cannot meet each other until the final.
And Kenny breaks the Olympic record! His time is 9.551sec, over 0.15sec faster than anyone else in the field! Whoosh!
Ooooooh! Matthew Glaetzer couldn’t get any closer to a (joint) Olympic record – his time of 9.704 is one thousandth of a second slower than Callum Skinner. And now for Jason Kenny, the last rider out.
… and immediately someone else dips below that mark – Russia’s Denis Dmitriev comes home in 9.774.
Now just three riders to go, and Skinner is still the only man to go below 9.8sec.
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I must say I prefer the Chinese women’s helmet to the men’s, which has a considerably fiercer face on it.
There are only six men still to go in the sprint qualifying. Xu Chao of China is up next. Skinner’s remains the time to beat, followed by Baugé, Njisane Phillip of Trinidad & Tobago, and New Zealand’s Sam Webster and Edward Dawkins.
It’s Day Two in the velodrome, where Bradley Wiggins is one team pursuit medal away from becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time. Ed Clancy, Steven Burke and Owain Dowell will be assisting him in his quest, but there’s no doubt who’ll be grabbing tomorrow’s headlines if they win gold. During their training camp in Newport before the Olympics, Wiggins said that nothing but the top step of the podium will suffice, saying he wasn’t coming to Rio to go home with a silver or bronze.
In tonight’s other events, Jason Kenny goes in the opening rounds of the men’s sprint, which continues tomorrow before concluding on Sunday. The women’s team sprint also takes place tonight, but Team GB don’t have any dogs in that particular fight as they failed to qualify. In conversation with Victoria Pendleton, no mean sprinter in her pomp, en route to the velodrome, she said it was ridiculous that the British weren’t represented.
We have a new Olympic record in the men’s sprint! And it’s Scotland’s Callum Skinner who has set it, with a time of 9.703, precisely 0.01sec faster than Jason Kenny’s previous record.
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France’s Grégory Baugé is the first man to better Eilers’ mark, his time being 9.807.
It’s relentless stuff, this, as people come onto the track, whizz around it a few times and the zip off it again with very little hanging about. “It’s like a conveyor belt of sprints,” says Chris Boardman. Joachim Eilers of Germany is setting the early pace, with a time of 9.908.
Next up, then, is qualifying for the men’s individual sprint. There are 27 entrants, and Jason Kenny will be the last to go. Britain’s other representative is Callum Skinner, who will be the 16th to go. François Pervis of France, holder of the current world record – set in 2013 – goes 11th.
The final heat is over, and China and Russia set the best times of the night, China setting a new Olympic record. So here are the final standings after the qualifying round:
1 China 32.305
2 Russia 32.655
3 Germany 32.673
4 Australia 32.881
5 Netherlands 33.189
6 France 33.625
7 Canada 33.735
8 Spain 33.891
9 New Zealand 34.346
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Germany and Australia vault to the top of the leaderboard, which now looks as follows. There’s been another false start in the final heat, between Russia and China – there seems to be a problem with one of the starting gates:
1 Germany 32.673
2 Australia 32.881
3 Netherlands 33.189
4 France 33.625
5 Canada 33.735
6 Spain 33.891
7 New Zealand 34.346
Mark Cavendish is supposed to be the reserve for this evening’s cycling team pursuit, but has thrown his toys out of the pram and refused to come down and warm up, the Guardian understands. Cavendish, who will race the omnium on Sunday, has fallen out with the pursuit coach, Heiko Salzwedel, it seems. He has made it clear he wanted to ride team pursuit but was unable to keep up with the other guys, who effectively self-selected the squad without him. The 31-year-old Manxman really ought to have at least shown up, in case Bradley Wiggins, Steven Burke, Ed Clancy or Owain Doull fall suddenly ill and can’t race.
The third heat ends with Holland posting a time of 33.189, the fastest of the night so far. Germany and Australia are up next.
This too has false started. The first heat incidentally saw Canada race all by themselves, and their time of 33.735 has them currently sitting second.
As it stands:
1 France 33.625
2 Canada +0.110
3 New Zealand +0.721
The second heat has now been restarted and duly completed. France came home first in 33.635, New Zealand trailing in in a time of 34.346. This isn’t a knock-out though, its purpose being more to establish rankings for the first round proper, which starts in an hour or so. Next up, Holland and Spain.
It’s a very sorry state of affairs that there is no Team GB duo in the women’s team sprint - despite Jess Varnish and Katy Marchant finishing fifth at the Track World Championships in London. Varnish’s vocal dissatisfaction with British Cycling’s coaches after that performance kicked off a chain of events that would see her accusing technical director, Shane Sutton, of sexism, and eventually her lose her place on the squad. Her former sprint partner, Victoria Pendleton, has said previously that there is sexism at the top of British Cycling, with coaches lavishing more attention on the men than the women. But in the velodrome in Rio on Friday night, head coach Iain Dyer was unrepentant. He insisted he and colleagues had done everything they could do help Varnish and Marchant qualify. “I’m naturally disappointed,” he said. “But we gave it our best shot, we fell short and had to refocus to get momentum in individual events.”
The women’s team sprint qualifying is the first event of the evening. Heat two, which has just false started as I type, features France and New Zealand.
Hello world!
So, another evening/morning/afternoon of red-hot track cycling action awaits. The schedule, with times in BST, looks as follows:
So there are two gold medals to hand out, with China overwhelming favourites to win the women’s team sprint (ahead of Russia, Germany and Australia, in that order), and Great Britain even more overwhelming favourites – 1-25 with William Hill – to win the men’s team pursuit, with Australia (16-1) and Denmark (18-1) the only teams considered to have any hope at all of stopping them. This, of course, is the event in which the spurned Mark Cavendish said that Bradley Wiggins “wants to be the hero”, and there’s every chance that he will be. There are also some heats for the men’s individual sprint, for which Britain’s Jason Kenny and Australia’s Matthew Glaetzer are expected to duke it out at the business end, so to speak.
So grab yourself a drink, strap yourself in, and prepare for a thrilling ride, watching other people’s thrilling rides.
Simon will be here shortly. In the meantime, why not relive Great Britain’s gold in the men’s sprint with Barry Glendenning’s report?
