Australian men’s team pursuit "proud" of silver medal performance

Australia finished second in the final

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Match racing still the best tactic, says Hepburn

Australia’s male pursuit team was left with mixed emotions after claiming silver in the at the London Olympic Games. The foursome of Jack Bobridge, Glenn O’Shea, Rohan Dennis and Michael Hepburn coasted through their heat with New Zealand to set up a gold medal race against the British team. And despite a promising start the Australian’s were never able to lead, eventually finishing in a time of 3:54.581, as the British team set a new world record of 3:51.659.

“It’s disappointing. Yes it’s a silver medal and we’re very proud of it but we had one goal and to come here and win,” Dennis said after the final.

“The last four years we’ve worked really hard as a team and we’re like brothers and we’re proud to come home with silver. The GB team were exceptional over the last two days. You couldn’t fault anything they did and they deserve the gold and well to them.”

The Australians had qualified second fastest in Thursday’s track session, watching on as the British set their first world record. And after brushing aside the challenge from New Zealand the British camp expected the Australians to improve on their time of 3.54.317.

After a strong start from the British the Australians began to close on their opposition, chipping away at their slight lead. However they were unable to sustain such a pace and began to drift inside the final two kilometres.

“We went into the final with a plan to race the British team,” Hepburn told Cyclingnews.

“You saw in their qualifying rides that they were dialled into that 3:52 and we thought that they’d go out with a similar tactic. We tried to match them over the first two kilometres and our plan was to take it

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