The handlebars snapped, and the fallout was dire. It’s why no one saw them coming

Once they’d jumped back out of the stands they had just leapfrogged into, and the delirium had subsided just enough to check their phones, the Australian men’s team pursuit squad saw the text from Alex Porter.

“He said, ‘I’m not crying, you are crying’,” said Sam Welsford. “Porter’s been talking to us about every minute of the day. He’s always been there for us, and for him to be so heavily invested after what happened in Tokyo, that means a lot to us, too.”

“Alex Porter” and “Tokyo” probably rank quite highly as Google search term combinations. Maybe add “handlebars” in there, too. It has been three years since Porter’s handlebars snapped during team pursuit qualification at the last Games, effectively ending Australia’s chance of a gold medal.

They managed to jag a bronze, but the fallout was significant, and the symbolism of a high-speed equipment malfunction amid an exorbitant international arms race Australia were not winning was difficult to ignore. Australia had not won an Olympic team pursuit gold since 2004 in Athens, and track cycling’s marquee event was increasingly being won by well-funded European nations throwing everything at aerodynamics.

The enduring battle between Australia and Team GB that underpinned the narrative throughout London 2012 and Rio 2016 (GB pipped their rivals to gold both times) got lost at the Izu Velodrome in 2021, when Italy claimed gold in world-record time and Denmark silver.

The handlebar fiasco, coupled with an overall lamentable performance from the whole track cycling squad – that team pursuit bronze was the sole medal – prompted AusCycling to reform its elite program.

Aside from mild conjecture about the $100,000 Factor pursuit bike, the lead-up to Paris 2024 was notable for its distinct lack of hype. Australia were never even in the conversation. Until two days ago in qualifying, when they put down a field-leading time just shy of that Italy world record (3:42.032). One day ago, they backed it up by breaking that world record (3:40.730) and also beating first-round opponents Italy.

On Wednesday night, at the national velodrome in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, they won gold, besting Britain by more than two seconds to secure the decider in 3:42.067.

Australia’s men’s pursuit team celebrate after winning gold.Credit: AP

The team featured two riders from that Tokyo campaign in Welsford and Kelland O’Brien who, despite Porter’s retirement, returned to set things right alongside Olympic debutants Conor Leahy and Oliver Bleddyn.

“We copped a big blow in Tokyo,” Welsford said. “But I think that also [lit] a bit of fire for us to nail it and really get it right, and just come together as a team and do all the things necessary to win. We just stuck [in and] got to work.

“Being a bit of the underdogs, I think a lot of people underestimated what we can do. We used that to our advantage here, and we kind of kept under the radar. When we saw 40 up on the board yesterday, we were all a bit surprised. But then we backed ourselves in, and we knew that we could actually do that with our form and with our work we’ve done.”

It might have been the fast track. It might have been the fast bikes – the $100,000 Factor models developed especially for the Paris 2024 pursuiters. It might have been the psychological edge that comes with having broken the world record 24 hours prior.

Whatever it was, it was historic for Australian track cycling. A first gold medal since Anna Meares beat her own British rival Victoria Pendleton in the sprint at London 2012.

And it came at a Games where, in the opening three days alone following the men’s sprint bronze, the team have already achieved more at the velodrome than they did at the entire Tokyo games.

Meares, now Australia’s chef de mission, had visited the venue on Tuesday night to watch the quartet’s first-round world record of 3:40.730. She described it as “amazing”.

“They look cohesive, they look slick, they look fiercely focused, and it’s really beautiful to watch,” Meares said. “It’s also nerve-racking to watch as well.”

But Meares had also noticed their “cool heads”, and the team kept those in working order during a gold-medal race that tested the nerves at every 250m split.

Australia pulled ahead a little after 1km. GB’s team of Ethan Hayter, Daniel Bigham, Charlie Tanfield and Oliver Wood regained a tiny bit of time over the final stages. But then Hayter slipped on his saddle as he tried, from the front position, to catch Australia’s pace, it forced a wobble that blew out the deficit to more than two seconds.

“I’m just really stoked to stand there with my brothers and Tim, who’s family to me, to get a gold medal. Not only just for us, but for him as well,” said Welsford. “He’s been here a long time and he’s ridden the ups and downs we’ve experienced as a team.”

The Tim is Tim Decker, AusCycling’s long-time endurance coach who left in 2022 to coach the Chinese national team, before returning last year.

“People forget what happened in Tokyo,” Decker said, holding back tears. “We were a very, very strong team then. We got a bronze medal probably with our third-best line-up, and the resilience the boys showed to actually move forward from that and come back and make this happen is history. Really high-level history.

“We’ve been to hell and back, and for them to make this happen has been amazing.”

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