Britain’s Ed Lowe, Hamish Turnbull and Jack Carlin won silver in the men’s team sprint on Tuesday, coming second to a rapid Netherlands outfit who broke the world record twice in two races.
While Team GB eased past Germany in the heats, the Dutch went around in 41.191 seconds in their first round head-to-head race against Canada to smash their own world record which had stood since 2020.
The British trio were trying to stop the so-called “Bullet Train” in the final but did not stand a chance as they came in almost one second behind in a race often won by the width of a wheel.
“I think we’ve executed three really solid races there and can be proud of that as a team,” Carlin said. “We knew that we would be up against it coming into it but we stuck to our process and stuck to what we wanted from each race.
“We executed it as a three brilliantly even when little things were going on throughout the day, we really focused and knuckled down. It’s obviously these two’s first Olympics and both of them stepped up to the occasion and have a medal to show for it.”
Australia came third, beating France in the bronze medal race.
“We came here expecting to fight for third, so as soon as we got into that gold final all stress was off and we could just try to express what we could do and enjoy it,” Turnbull said.
“It’s a really nice feeling racing in front of this crowd, so many people on our shoulder and big thanks to everyone at home who’s cheering us on as well, we really appreciate it.”
It was another fast and furious session at the velodrome with more world records falling after day one when the British women’s team sprint squad lowered the mark en route to gold.
Australia’s men broke the team pursuit world record as they topped the time charts in the first round.
The quartet of Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien clocked three minutes 40.730 seconds and will ride against Britain for gold in Wednesday’s final.
It means that Team GB’s Ethan Hayter, Charlie Tanfield, Ethan Vernon and Ollie Wood are guaranteed at least a silver medal in the event.
Information from Reuters contributed to this report