Pendleton and Varnish out of team sprint

Victoria Pendleton, London 2012 Olympics, track training, 30 July 2012

Victoria Pendleton and Jessica Varnish are out of the women's team sprint gold after the commissaires ruled they made an irregular change in their semi-final run.

The ruling sees them relegated to second place in their race which means they are out of the competition. 

The pair had ridden themselves in to the gold medal final with a time of 32.567 seconds in the semi-final. Only China were faster in 32.422 as the pair set two successive world records.

China will ride for gold against Germany while Australia will race for bronze against the Ukraine who lost to Great Britain in their semi-final ride.

The UCI rules state:

A team shall be relegated to the last place in the stage of the competition if one of the following infringements has been committed:

1) if a rider draws away by more than 15 metres before the end of the lap that he is to lead

2) if a rider does not draw away by more than 15 metres after the end of the lap that he was supposed to lead

3) if one rider pushes another.

Pendleton will return for the keirin and women's sprint, sadly that's the end of Jess Varnishes Olympics.

In the men's team sprint Great Britain qualified fastest, despite a slip by Philip Hindes coming out of the gate forcing a restart.

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Simon Richardson
Magazine editor

Editor of Cycling Weekly magazine, Simon has been working at the title since 2001. He fell in love with cycling 1989 when watching the Tour de France on Channel 4, started racing in 1995 and in 2000 he spent one season racing in Belgium. During his time at CW (and Cycle Sport magazine) 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 became the 130-year-old magazine's 13th editor in 2015.