Great Britain qualify with third fastest team pursuit time in history


The British squad set the third fastest team pursuit time in history to qualify fastest for tonight's gold medal final.
The quartet of Ed Clancy, Peter Kennaugh, Andy Tennant and Geraint Thomas set a time of 3:54.485 minutes in Melbourne, two tenths of a second faster than Australia who they will meet in the final.
Australia had been almost a second up on GB's time at the two kilometre mark, but they couldn't hold the pace in the final eight laps. Their split times slowly edged closer back down to the British marks as small gaps opened in their line-up.
With one lap to go they were still up, but lost a significant chunk of time in the final 250 metres to qualify second.
Britain's time was the fastest ever in qualifying, as the two faster times, also set by British quartets, were ridden in finals with another team on the track creating circulating air.
GB will change their line-up for the final as Steven Burke comes in for Andy Tennant.
New Zealand will ride against Russia in the bronze medal final.
Follow the team pursuit final with our live text coverage or watch it on the BBC's red button. The final is scheduled to start at 7.30pm local time, 10.30am British time.
Related links
2012 world track championships coverage index
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Editor of Cycling Weekly magazine, Simon has been working at the title since 2001. He fell in love with cycling when channel surfing in 1989 and happening across the greatest ever edition of the Tour de France. He's been a Greg LeMond fan ever since. He started racing in 1995 when moving to university in North Wales gave him more time to train and some amazing roads to train on. He raced domestically for several years, riding everything from Surrey leagues to time trials, track and even a few Premier Calendars. In 2000 he spent one season racing in Belgium with the Kingsnorth International Wheelers.
Since working for Cycling Weekly he has written product reviews, fitness features, pro interviews, race coverage and news. He has covered the Tour de France more times than he can remember along with two Olympic Games and many other international and UK domestic races. He can still be seen at his club's evening races through the summer but he still hasn't completed the CW5000 challenge!
SIMON IS CURRENTLY RIDING
Road bike: Pinarello K8S with Shimano Dura Ace
TT bike: Specialized Venge road bike with FFWD wheels and Easton Attack TT bars
Gravel bike: N/A
Training bike: Rourke custom hand made with Reynolds 853 steel
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