Great Britain fail to qualify for pursuit finals

Great Britain place eighth in the men's team pursuit with a young team. Denmark will race Australia in the gold final

Great Britain finished a disappointing eighth place in the men’s team pursuit qualifying round in Cali, Colombia today.

Double Olympic champion Ed Clancy lead a new-look team that included Sam Harrison, Jon Dibben and Owain Doull. Their time of 4-04.419 minutes was over two seconds slower than fourth placed New Zealand.

“Behind the scenes we’ve had some problems. We knew a week ago we had our backs against the wall,” admitted Clancy. “We’re the GB cycling team, you’re always expected to do all right despite the fact we didn’t have a couple of our more established riders. I think we were still hoping to get a ride in the final, but that‘s sport, some days you go better than you think, some days you don’t go so well.”

Chris Newton is covering the men’s endurance squad while Paul Manning stays at home for the birth of his child. “As a team we’re disappointed, but you can’t change what you’ve got in there,” said Newton.

The result is the team’s worst since 1999. Since then they have won a medal each year save for 2009 when they finished fourth.

More later in our day-one round up…….