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But the Australian track cycling team are ready to make their mark after a few olympiads in the wilderness.
The Australians are no longer underdogs. That changed over two quick-fire evenings at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome. On Monday, the Australian squad of Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien, surprised the field to qualify fastest, in a time of 3:42.958 – barely a second away from the world record. Just 24 hours later, in Australia’s first round encounter with Italy, the team not only set a new world record, but smashed the old one – finishing in a time of 3:40.730.
It has been five years since Australia were world champions in the men’s team pursuit. It has been two decades since the Australians were last Olympic gold medallists in the discipline, at Athens 2004.
In a one-sided final, Great Britain’s sprint trio of Jack Carlin, Hamish Turnbull and Ed Lowe, were valiant but powerless, as Lavreysen and teammates, Jeffrey Hoogland and Roy van den Berg led almost from the first bend.
As the Dutch, having already broken the world record earlier in the competition, sped to a world-record time of 40.949sec, Carlin, Turnbull and Lowe could only look on as Lavreysen and his two teammates raised their arms in celebration.
