Olympic Games Paris 2024 – Track Cycling [DAY 2]

August 6, 2024

Olympic Games Paris 2024 🇫🇷 – Track Cycling – Day 2 – The Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, Paris

Women’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.

New Zealand wowed at the Paris Olympics velodrome, setting the fastest time in the women’s team pursuit qualifying round on Tuesday, putting the team in the pole position for the gold medal final.

Bryony Botha, Emily Shearman, Nicole Shields, and Ally Wollaston pushed close to the existing world record set by Germany in the Tokyo Olympics, setting a time of 4:04.679, 0.437 shy of breaking that mark to move onto the first round of competition.

With new road race Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner a new addition to Team USA’s women’s team pursuit squad, their quartet with Tokyo Olympic bronze medalists Chloé Dygert, Jen Valente and Lily Williams powered to the second-fastest time, 4:05.238.

Despite missing Katie Archibald, who suffered a broken leg in a freak accident in June, Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris and Jessica Roberts finished solidly in third with a time of 4:06.710.

Great Britain will face off against the USA in the fight for the gold medal round, and will have to beat their American rivals to move on, or set the third- or fourth-fastest time to qualify for the bronze medal final.

The Italian team with Chiara Consonni, Martina Fidanza, Vittoria Guazzini, Letizia Paternoster slipped into fourth in the rankings ahead of defending champions Germany with a 4:07.579, becoming the final team eligible to race for the gold medals. They will have to beat New Zealand to move on, however.

Still building their momentum after Lisa Brennauer retired after the Tokyo Games, Franziska Brausse, Lisa Klein, Mieke Kröger and Laura Süßemilch moved on to the next round along with the teams from Australia, France and Canada.

Germany will face Canada in the first round, while France and Australia will compete to set the third and fourth-fastest times to be eligible to race in the bronze medal final.

Men’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.

The Netherlands celebrated winning the gold medal and smashing the world record in the men’s Team Sprint Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome outside Paris at the Olympic Games on Tuesday.

Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen, and Jeffrey Hoogland had already set new Olympic and World records in both the qualification and first rounds of the men’s Team Sprint.

They then smashed through those records again in the gold-medal final with a winning performance in a time of 40.949, setting new Olympic and World records.

The Netherlands faced off against Great Britain’s team of Ed Lowe, Hamish Turnbull and Jack Carlin, who were forced to settle for the silver medal with a time of 41.814.

Hoogland said that going under 41 seconds was “a sort of secret dream”.

“Yesterday we started thinking about it because the track is really fast. We had this feeling that we needed a world record to be Olympic Champions, so that’s what we aimed for, and in the finals, going under 41 seconds, was absolutely crazy.”

Van den Berg said the result was amazing. “We have worked very hard for this moment- to be at your absolute best is something pretty hard, and to achieve this with the three of us is an amazing achievement. People are very happy to do the race in 41 seconds, and today we achieved the 40-second barrier, which is absolutely outstanding, in my opinion.”

Tokyo silver medalist Jack Carlin said he was proud of his team for pulling out another silver racing with two Olympic newcomers.

“We know what we can do as a team. We had that in the tank if we executed well,” Carlin said. “It’s not easy to come to your first Olympic Games. I’m really proud of the team. We surpassed what we wanted. We will enjoy that.”

They were up against the fastest three men in the history of track cycling, however.

“Look at the world record. The Dutch are a great team, they are three great individuals. We went to that final and enjoyed it. I didn’t have these emotions in Tokyo,” Carlin said.

Australia won the bronze medal in a thrilling final for third and fourth places in the men’s Team Sprint, where they faced off against France.

France’s team of Florian Grengbo, Sebastien Vigier and Rayan Helal looked like they would take the medal after Australia had a slower start. However, the Australians with Leigh Hoffman, Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer came through a fraction of a second faster on the last lap to win the bronze with a time of 41.597.

Glaetzer, who has been fourth in the London, Rio and Tokyo Olympic Games with Australia’s team sprint squad was relieved to finally win a hard-earned medal, even if it wasn’t the colour he’d been dreaming of.

“It’s very special. I’ve lived through a lot of heartbreak in every team sprint Olympic final, I’ve been on the losing side in the bronze final. It’s been very tough, but to finally come out on the winners side of it was pretty special.”

Japan secured fifth place in the race against Germany, finishing with a faster time of 42.078. China beat Canada in the race for seventh place with a time of 45.531.

Men’s team pursuit – Round 1
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 smashed the men’s team pursuit world record in the first round of the Paris Olympics competition, carving a massive 1.302 seconds off the time Italy set in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

The effort moved them into the gold medal round where they will face Great Britain.

Australia had the upper hand against defending Olympic champions Italy throughout their 4km effort, but Italy did enough to move on to face their Tokyo rivals Denmark in the bronze medal final.

Great Britain and Denmark had a stunning back-and-forth battle to make the gold medal final, the Danish team holding back after hitting out much too fast in the qualifying round.

This time, it was Great Britain, lacking an injured Dan Bigham and instead adding Charlie Tanfield to their line-up, who went out fast. But midway through the 4km effort, the British team were surpassed by Denmark.

They had a late surge to get ahead of the Danish in the final kilometre, however but both teams were fighting close to world-record pace.

In the final lap, Britain’s Ethan Hayter surged, bringing the team home in 3:42.151, while the Danes faded, finishing in 3:42.803.

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.

Results Women’s team pursuit – Q:

Results Men’s team sprint – 🥇:

Results Men’s team pursuit – Round 1: