The second day of the track cycling in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games was, once again, very eventful with multiple world and Olympic records falling as well as a bizarre crash.
The action started with a bang with Team GB coming out and breaking the world record in the women's team pursuit against the USA which put them through into the gold medal final. But moments after the race Katie Archibald rode into the back of Neah Evans as the teams chatted on their way back to track centre. Fortunately, everyone was okay.
But the German women then came out and broke the world record for the second day in a row, putting them into the final for the gold medal alongside GB. That final with Team GB came later in the day with Germany smashing their own world record yet again, taking the gold medal, and almost catching the British team who took the silver medal. The USA took bronze ahead of Canada.
The men's team sprint came next with the favourites, the Netherlands, topping the tables in qualifying with them eventually going through to the final. The qualifying for the finals was spectacular as Australia came out and broke the Olympic record, this was quickly followed by Great Britain breaking the record straight away but that lasted about as long as the Netherlands came out and broke it again.
In the finals Australia missed out on bronze due to a calamitous ride that saw the three riders lose slipstream with each other, thus handing the bronze medal to the French.
In the gold medal fight for the men's team sprint, between the Dutch and the British teams it was indeed the Netherlands who stormed to the top with another Olympic record that edged close to their own world record set before the Games. Great Britain had similar issues to Australia with Jason Kenny just becoming disengaged from his team-mates going into the key part of the race which meant they finished around four seconds back, having to settle for the silver medal as the Netherlands took gold.
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In the men's team pursuit medal qualifiers we saw an amazing penultimate race between New Zealand and Italy. The Italians were trailing the New Zealanders going into the final lap by a good margin but world record holder in the individual pursuit, Filippo Ganna, took the last two laps from the front and pulled the gap back to not only win by 0.09 of a second but to also knock over two seconds out of the old world record set by Denmark in 2020.
This astonishing ride was followed by the hotly anticipated race between Denmark and Great Britain. The Danish were the fastest qualifiers with the British riders down in fourth. This really showed on the track as the Danish riders were absolutely flying, looking like they may have been set to break the world record again.
However, Great Britain's Olympic debutant Charlie Tanfield, who had to step in last minute due to an injury for Ed Clancy that end his cycling career, lost touch with his team-mates in the penultimate lap as the Danes closed in.
Frederik Madsen and Charlie Tanfield hit the deck after colliding in the men's team pursuit
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Unfortunately, Danish rider Frederik Madsen had his head down powering along and did not know Tanfield was just ahead of him. He rode full tilt into the back of the Brit, bringing them both down heading into the final lap, ending the contest. The riders had to wait until after all the other races had taken place to find out their fate with the Danish being allowed to go through to the final to face Italy and battle for gold with Great Britain unlikely to be going for bronze.
The third day of competition sees the men's sprint kick off with all races in one day and the medals decided at the end, the women's Keirin gets underway in the home of the discipline and the men's team pursuit finals will be ridden to decide placings and the medals.
Wednesday, August 4, 3.30pm - 7.00pm Japan/7.30am - 11am UK
Men's Sprint Qualifying
Women's Keirin First round
Men's Sprint 1/32 Finals
Women's Keirin First round Repechages
Men's Sprint 1/32 Finals Repechages
Men's Team Pursuit Finals
Men's Sprint 1/16 Finals
Men's Team Pursuit Victory Ceremony
Men's Sprint 1/16 Finals Repechages
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