Track world championships: Great Britain’s team pursuit squad both qualify second
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Version 0 of 1. The shocks began here in the afternoon, a few hours before the sparkling new velodrome in Paris’s south-western suburbs was darkened for the opening ceremony. For a timed event which is supposed to be a preliminary to ’s knockout stages, the qualifying round of both the men’s and women’s team pursuits offered intriguing fare, with both British squads qualifying in second and well placed to progress. Those were the bare facts, but the results had wildly different implications for the respective squads. For the defending champions Katie Archibald, Laura Trott, Elinor Barker and Jo Rowsell, a narrow second to Australia – less than seven hundredths of a second in it – marked a rare off-note in the pitch-perfect dominance which they have maintained for so long. They face another old adversary, the third qualifiers Canada, in Thursday’s second round, where they will be favourites to progress to the gold-medal ride off after qualifying almost two and a half seconds faster. A 12th major championship title is still on the cards – they qualified second at the World Cup in Cali earlier this season and still won – but it is rare for them to fall upon adversaries this threatening. For the men, few second places can have meant this much, but finishing runners-up to New Zealand answered the first of this weeks’ big questions around Great Britain. This was a marked improvement on last year’s disappointing eighth place in Cali, with the team one of seven to break the magic four-minute mark for the 4,000 metres in what was one of the fastest qualifying sessions ever seen. This is a talismanic event, and this result will be a massive relief to the technical director, Shane Sutton, and his newly appointed endurance head, Heiko Salzwedel. Bizarre as it may sound, it is the kind of result that could lift the entire squad. Their time of 3min 57.716sec was 1.295sec slower than the Kiwis, but a good second faster than the third-placed Germans, who will be their opponents in Thursday’s second round, when New Zealand meet the fourth qualifiers Switzerland. At worst the British will make one of the final ride-offs for a medal, which means they can be said to be back on course for Rio. As at last December’s World Cup in London, events conspired against the defending champions and big favourites for the men’s event, Australia. Luke Davison suffered a broken crank leading to a crash, and a puncture for Alex Edmondson in the opening metres of their qualifier, and they were well off their usual form when they started again some 15 minutes later, registering a fifth place which is far from their usual standard. It is so long since a track world championships were held in France that last time round, in Bordeaux in 2006, Victoria Pendleton and Chris Hoy -– plain old title-less Chris – were yet to become household names, and a haul of six medals seemed more than respectable. Considering how many stars France has contributed to track cycling in recent years, it is hard to believe that it is over 50 years since the championships were last held in or near the French capital. The opening of this velodrome a year ago marked the end of 59 years in which Paris had been without an indoor track of world standard following the closure of the Vel d’Hiv in 1955, the 1964 championships being held outdoors at the Parc des Princes. But last night the 5,000 seats were packed, and there was an expectant buzz outside as the crowds gathered, sparking hopes that with this facility in place and operational, track cycling here can enjoy a revival similar to that which has taken place in recent years on the other side of the Channel. |