Aussie cyclists grab silver medal behind powerful Great Britain team in men’s team pursuit
THE Aussie men’s team pursuit have grabbed a silver medal as Great Britain broke the world record to win gold in a thrilling final in Rio.
AUSTRALIA faces yet another four-year wait to exact revenge on Great Britain in the men’s team pursuit after the Brits broke the world record in an epic Olympic final in Rio.
Led by Bradley Wiggins who won his fifth gold medal, Great Britain came from 0.5 of a second down at the halfway mark of their 4km final to win in 3mins 50.205secs from Australia’s 3:51.008.
GALLERY: DAY SEVEN ACTION FROM RIO
The Aussies only just scraped into the final after beating Denmark in their semi by just 0.1 of a second, after coach Tim Decker made the courageous call to leave three-time Olympian Jack Bobridge out of the line-up and bring him in for the final.
Australia laid it all on the line in one of the greatest team pursuit finals ever seen and Bobridge, Alex Edmondson, Michael Hepburn and Sam Welsford led by 0.6 of a second after 2km but faded late as Wiggins, Ed Clancy, Steven Burke and Owain Doull stormed over the top.
Hepburn could hardly stand up after the race and had to have a coach remove his helmet for him.
Welsford appeared to have tears in his eyes through either physical pain or emotional hurt, while Edmondson and Bobridge stood stony faced on the podium proud of their efforts but ruing a lost opportunity.
Young gun Callum Scotson was also awarded a silver medal after he stepped up to the plate in place of Bobridge in the win over Denmark and did everything that was asked of him.
“Of course you want to come to an Olympic Games and stand on top step but as (coach) Tim Decker always says as long as you give 100 per cent and all you’ve got then you can’t be too upset,” Edmondson said.
“To come away with a new Aussie record is special, of course we wanted to come away with a gold medal but we gave everything we’ve got and we got beaten by a team that was on a better day.”
Bobridge has now been to three Olympics in the team pursuit and finished fourth in Beijing, second in London and second in Rio.
“Obviously we’re proud as a team of what we achieved, still walked away with a silver medal and Australian record, 3:51.0 is not slow,” he said.
“We can go back over the books and say ‘what if we did this or that’ but there’s nothing more, we trained our arses off and laid it all out there and we got beaten by a better team.
“They’ve (Great Britain) talked the talk but they’ve walked the walk, we as a team kept very quiet and didn’t respond to their comments in the media but when you’re that confident you throw it out there and pull it off - congratulations to them.”
The 27-year-old said it was never the original plan to sit out the semi final but Decker decided he wasn’t going well enough to ride that round.
“It was up to Tim after the qualifying, it came down to the coach not thinking I was ready for the semis,” Bobridge said.
“Callum came in and did a fantastic job in the semis and (I) had a bit more rest for the final.
“He proved himself in the camps and at worlds, he’s a fantastic young guy, he did an awesome job and 100 per cent Callum and Sam are going to be leaders of this team for the next four years running into Tokyo and worlds and you’ll see them lead this team hopefully to a gold medal in Tokyo.”
Bobridge peeled off after 2.6km of the final having delivered the team as fast as possible and was never scheduled to hit the front again.
Decker said it was not a surprise decision internally to leave Bobridge out of the semi-final ride.
“I guess it’s a surprise to the world and maybe to the media, but I’m put in this position to do what’s best for Australia and at the end of the day Jack Bobridge didn’t perform in qualifying,” Decker said.
“I had to put our best team forward to make sure we got in that gold medal ride-off.
“That was to bring Callum in, move Alex into second wheel, also in the back of my mind there was a plan for the final.
“It was up to Jack to turn it around which he did, he did his couple of big turns, he did what was asked of him and that’s team pursuiting.”
Asked to describe his emotions after the race, Decker said:
“My emotions on one side are proud of the guys for the way they fought back and took it to them, but there’s also disappointment,” Decker said.
“What can you say ... they don’t give away Olympic gold medals do they?
“The boys can leave with no regrets, they laid it out there and they got it right when they needed to.
“They ran a couple of laps short but it was certainly one hell of a fight.
“Michael Hepburn for the first time in his career had to have his helmet pulled off him, so they went deep, they went 1.7 seconds quicker than they’ve ever gone before.”
Debutant Welsford rode all three rounds of the TP and said he would use it as motivation going forward.
“It’s always bittersweet coming second but I think there’s a big future for us in team pursuiting, Tokyo and Comm Games, I think we’re in a good position,” Welsford said.
“We gave it our best and we’ll grow from this performance and use it moving on.”
Hepburn - who came back from the road with Orica-BikeExchange to ride the track in Rio - said this silver medal was different to London four years ago.
“The silver in London we made some mistakes in the lead-up to that race, we really felt as though we let ourselves and the team down,” Hepburn said.
“We weren’t even in the ball park as well, we got smashed every round there.
“Where as I think we can be proud of a 51.0 and pushing them to do a world record.
“It was just old school team pursuit riding, like we used to ride years ago when we were 18 and had no fear.
“I remember talking to Kev Tabotta 18 months ago before I came back into the program, I said to him ‘I don’t want another silver medal’ and he sort of said if we give it 100 per cent and you still get a silver how can you be disappointed with it.
“And that’s the way I feel tonight, that we gave everything we had and sometimes when you don’t win, how can you lose?”
Earlier in the night Anna Meares and Stephanie Morton narrowly missed out on a medal in the team sprint when they lost their bronze medal ride against Germany by just 0.022 of a second while China beat Russia for gold.
“I’d by lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed, that’s brutally heartbreaking to finish that close to an Olympic medal,” Meares said.
“At the same time I’m proud of the performances that Steph and I put forward.”
Morton made her Olympic debut and said she would take plenty from their performance.
“It’s tough but we pulled two tenths from qualifying round into the second round and followed that into the final,” she said.
“We left it all on the track and to get three quality rounds I’m really happy.”
Both Meares and Morton will line up in the keirin on Saturday night along with Matthew Glaetzer and Pat Constable who are through to the next round of the men’s sprint.