GB men back on top in team pursuit

Special bond leads Great Britain to TP glory at the Track World Championships in France

- Tom Davidson

The secret to Britain’s return to gold medal-winning team pursuit form is right there in the event’s name. Team.

When new world champions Ethan Hayter, Ethan Vernon, Ollie Wood and Dan Bigham came off the track in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, they stood shoulder-to-shoulder, laughing and poking fun at each other as close friends do.

How had Bigham, the team’s debutant, fitted into the mould? “He’s made us slower, hasn’t he?” quipped Wood. Either side of him, Hayter and Vernon let out a chuckle.

In their title-clinching effort, the quartet were less than two-tenths of a second off the British record, 3-45.636, set at last year’s Olympics in Tokyo.

“Tokyo was crazy,” said Hayter after the final. “It was so hot and at altitude. I think today it’s a bit stormy outside so the pressure drops a bit.

“It’s the same for everyone, but the team morale can be different.”

Wood nodded along as his teammate spoke. “Very true,” the 26-year-old chipped in.

Band of brothers 

Ben Greenwood, the team’s head coach, spends hours crunching the numbers but one variable he can’t measure is the bond between the riders.