Meyer Helps Australia to Team Pursuit World Title
Australia has reclaimed bragging rights from Great Britain after a thrilling battle for gold in the men’s 4km team pursuit at the UCI Track World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The win brings to five the gold medals won by the Australians in three days of racing. Belinda Goss then added a second bronze medal to the team’s tally to put Australia well clear on the medal table after 12 of 19 events.
The young quartet of Rohan Dennis, 19, Jack Bobridge, 20, Michael Hepburn, 18, and WAIS-AIS athlete Cameron Meyer, 22, combined to set a new Australian team pursuit record of 3:55.654, eclipsing the time of 3:56.610 ridden by Graeme Brown, Brett Lancaster, Bradley McGee and Luke Roberts to win gold at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.
The time was just over a tenth of a second faster than the silver medal time of Great Britain’s Steven Burke, Edward Clancy, Ben Swift and Andrew Tennant.
The Brits went into the final as the fastest qualifiers after posting a 3:56.869 against the Australians 3:58.185 in the morning round but the Australians responded to the challenge in the medal race.
Dennis got the team off to a fast start setting them up for a sizzling first kilometre of 1:01.819, almost half a second quicker than their rivals.
“I went out a little bit slow in the (qualifying) heat and I got told I basically needed to lift my game a bit to keep up with the Brits, get a good start and good lead from the word go and hold onto it,” said Dennis.
From there the Australians maintained the pressure hitting halfway with a leading margin of 0.6sec. Great Britain started to fight back in the final kilometre clawing back some ground and keeping the crowd on the edge of their seats. But it was too late and the Australians held on to win.
The normally taciturn men’s endurance coach, Ian McKenzie, was effusive in his praise for the team.
“Absolutely fantastic,” he said of their ride. “We went into the final and the boys were pretty confident but we had a meeting this afternoon and I just pointed out a few errors we made this morning (in qualifying) that brought the equation back to less than a second. There’s been a couple of occasions over the past four or five years that we’ve been in the same situation with England so I just reinforced that we’d done this before from behind and they were pretty keyed up.”
McKenzie also changed the lineup for the final pulling Victorian Leigh Howard, 20, out and replacing him with Meyer who won the points race title on day one of competition.
“We always have to look at where we could pick up some improvement and we had an equally good replacement in Cameron Meyer with plenty of experience in fourth wheel so we brought him in and it worked well,” said McKenzie who reserved special praise for elite debutant Michael Hepburn. “He’s the real surprise. I’ve always had a gut feel that in a couple of years he would be a real powerhouse for us but in his first year to be nearly the strongest guy in the team is a fantastic performance for him and augers well for our future.”
Hepburn, the 2009 individual pursuit junior World Champion, was in tears after the win.
“I am over the moon,” said the teenager. “This is one of the best Australian teams I’ve seen and to come in as a first year senior and just to get a start I was happy. I thought I’d take the opportunity if I got the start and I came this morning and I just had fantastic legs today and it’s just a day I’ll never forget.”
Yesterday’s individual pursuit bronze medallist Jack Bobridge couldn’t stop grinning as he celebrated the win.
“I can’t say anything at the moment,” said Bobridge . “Last year I went home with two silver medals (individual pursuit and team pursuit) and this year started and I thought I’d go home with bronze (Individual Pursuit) and still happy with that but to win I can’t describe it.
“The time we rode just shows we’re coming for London and won’t stop from here,”he said. “The boys tonight rode so well as a team, Leigh Howard for us in the qualifying was fantastic as well, all five of us just have to take it away now and soak every minute of it up and we’re going to.”
For Meyer it was his second gold of the Championships with the Madison (teaming with Leigh Howard) still to come.
“It’s unbelievable!,” said Meyer. “A dream come true to come to the worlds and start with two rainbow jerseys. The boys rode so well and congratulations to Leigh Howard who rode a fantastic effort in the qualifying. We did a bit of switch around for the final but he is just as much a part of this rainbow jersey as we are.”
New Zealand (3:59.475) defeated Denmark (4:01.64) for the bronze medal.
– Cycling Australia