Olympic Games Paris 2024 – Track Cycling [DAY 1]

August 5, 2024

Olympic Games Paris 2024 🇫🇷 – Track Cycling – Day 1 – The Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, Paris

Men’s team pursuit – Q
A team pursuit race involves two teams of four cyclists. Each team starts at opposite sides of the track. There are two ways to win: finish 16 laps (4 km) before the other team does or catch the other team. The time for each team is determined by the third cyclist to cross the finish line; the fourth cyclist does not need to finish.

Australia put in a brilliant performance in the men’s team pursuit to take the lead in the qualification heats, setting a near-world record of 3:42.958. Kelland O’Brien dropped off after 2750 metres and screamed at teammates Oliver Bleddyn, Conor Leahy, and Sam Welsford from the sidelines as they hurtled toward a near-world record, but landed 0.926 shy of Italy’s Tokyo record.

Great Britain’s quartet of Ethan Hayter, Ollie Wood, Dan Bigham and Ethan Vernon put in a strong ride with a time of 3:43.241 to qualify for the first round.

Denmark struggled in comparison to their team from the Tokyo Olympics, hitting out with the fastest first 3,000 metres but fading in the final kilometre. The team switched up their roster in the past three years with Niklas Larson and Rasmus Pedersen remaining but Tobias Hansen and Carl-Fredrik Bevort replacing Lasse Norman Hansen and Fredrik Rodenberg. They came through 0.449 seconds slower than Great Britain.

Italy had a shocking miscue past the halfway point of their 4km effort, with Francesco Lamon pulling off and Simone Consonni struggling to get onto the wheels of Jonathan Milan and Filippo Ganna. They finished off the pace in fourth but qualified for the first round and can make up for the mistake.

The hometown crowd went wild for the French foursome, with Thomas Boudat, Benjamin Thomas, Thomas Denis and the only non-Tom, Valentin Tabellion, tucked in behind Britain in the standings with a 3:45.514.

New Zealand’s Aaron Gate, Tom Sexton, Campbell Stewart and Keegan Hornblow put in a solid ride to qualify to move on, finishing just a tenth of a second slower than France with a 3:45.616.

Belgium set a solid first time, coming just five seconds from the world record with a 3:47.232 as conditions on the track were incredibly fast, even the loss of Robbe Ghys, who withdrew for “medical reasons”, and was replaced by 22-year-old Noah Vandenbranden to ride with Dens Tuur, Fabio van den Bossche and Lindsay De Vylder.

Canada’s breakthrough squad of Dylan Bibic, Mathias Guillemette, Michael Foley and Carson Mattern had a brilliant first 3000 metres but fell apart a bit in the final kilometre and dropped behind Belgium at 3:48.964. But it was enough to move on to the first round, a historic moment for the Canadian men.

Germany’s hopes appeared to fall apart when 22-year-old Tim Torn Teutenberg dropped off the pace of veterans Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt on the final laps after Tobias Buck-Gramcko, 23, had already pulled the plug. The mistake cost them and they were eliminated from the rest of the competition.

Japan had an even more disastrous performance, hitting out way too hard in the opening kilometre, losing Nakano Shinji early and then finishing a devastating last place, missing the qualification.

Women’s team sprint – 🥇
A team sprint race consists of a three-lap (750 m) race between two teams of three cyclists, starting on opposite sides of the track. Each member of the team must lead for one of the laps. The time for a team is measured to when the last cyclist finishes. Ties are broken by splits on the last lap.

Great Britain’s Katy Marchant, Emma Finucane and Sophie Capewell kicked off the Olympic Games track cycling events with the first gold medal in the women’s Team Sprint on Monday.

It was a historic moment for women’s cycling as this year marks the first time that the women race the same distance as the men in every track event.

Great Britain set a new world record of 45.186 in defeating New Zealand’s Rebecca Petch, Shaane Fulton and Ellesse Andrews, a full 0.296 seconds quicker than China’s record that stood before the day.

New Zealand started off quickly with a blistering opening lap, but Capewell carried the momentum set by Marchant and turned a 0.133-second deficit around.

Then, Finucane sealed the deal with a smoothly delivered final lap, besting the Kiwis by 0.473 seconds.

Defending Olympic champions Germany, who won the two-rider, 500-metre Tokyo Team Sprint were not as dominant in the new three-rider format.

However, Lea Friedrich, Pauline Grabosch, and Emma Hinze came around in the bronze medal final to beat the Netherlands’ Kyra Lamberink, Hetty van de Wouw, Steffie van der Peet, setting a time of 45.4.

The British trio were able to celebrate in front of a sizeable partisan crowd, with most of Finucane’s family travelling to Paris from Wales.

“I’m honestly so proud,” Finucane said. “We nailed that ride. I believed in us that we could do it but to execute it like that… I’ve never celebrated like that in my life. It’s so so special and we’ve worked so hard, so to everyone back home, I just want to say a huge thank you. The support has been unreal.”

Marchant, the individual sprint bronze medalist in Rio, was thrilled to overcome her disastrous Tokyo Olympics, where she crashed out of the keirin and was eliminated in the early sprint rounds, and start off the Paris track events with Great Britain’s first gold medal in track cycling of the Games.

“It doesn’t get much better than that,” Marchant said. “It means everything. It just shows the hard work we’ve put in. I always believed there was reward for hard work, we’ve just come together as a team and put so much work into learning how to deliver on the day and we were able to do that today.”

Finucane added that each of the trio have individual events to race as well, and while she is taking each race as it comes, “I just want to take this in and then crack on with the rest of the week.

“But this gives us a lot of confidence for the rest of the week.”

New Zealand’s Shaane Fulton knew the team came into the competition as underdogs, having been fifth at Worlds last year, and a silver medal and a brief world record was confirmation of the team’s hard work.

“I feel like these three rides today were our best ever. I feel like that was just so amazing for us as a team. People were weren’t watching us as much and we were the underdogs, so I think we just used that and and bought absolutely our A-game.”

Grabosch, the newcomer to the German team who joined Tokyo medalists Friedrich and Hinze, said the team never lost the focus on going as fast as they could together.

“We had the privilege to have three strong women leading into the new format of the team sprint. So everybody worked hard, everybody [she said, pointing to the British team], as we can see, has three very strong girls at the line. We put the fastest three girls together on the line today.”

Men’s team sprint – Q
A men’s team sprint race consists of a three-lap (750 m) race between two teams of three cyclists, starting on opposite sides of the track. Each member of the team must lead for one of the laps. The time for a team is measured to when the last cyclist finishes. Ties are broken by splits on the last lap.

The Netherlands beat their own Olympic record, which was set in Tokyo, with the fastest time of 41.279 in the men’s Team Sprint qualification round at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome outside Paris.

Australia opened up the faster times early on, with the three riders, Leigh Hoffman, Matthew Richardson, and Matthew Glaetzer, coming through with a time of 42.072.

That time didn’t hold, however, as Great Britain’s team beat that time with 41.862 thanks to the powerful efforts of Ed Lowe, Hamish Turnbull and Jack Carlin.

The Netherlands team of Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland were the last of eight teams and stormed across the line with the Olympic record and the fastest qualifying time.

The men’s Team Sprint resumes on Tuesday for the First Round and the Finals.

Results Men’s team pursuit – Q:

Results Women’s team sprint – 🥇:

Results Men’s team sprint – Q: