Tuesday 21 April 2015 17:17, UK
Great Britain’s women suffered their first defeat in the team pursuit in more than four years after Australia produced a world record-breaking performance to win gold at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Paris.
The Australians stopped the clock in an astonishing time of 4min 13.683sec, which was just under three seconds faster than the previous world record, set by Britain at altitude in Mexico in December 2013.
Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald rode well and their time of 4min 16.702sec was only 0.150 seconds outside their previous best, but in truth they were never in the contest and had to settle for silver.
Trott said afterwards: "I'm a bit gutted I guess. It's the first one we have lost so a bit of a shock in a way, but they rode a 4min 13sec, which is unbelievable. We have never gone anywhere near doing that, so hats off to them.
"It's disappointing. We are used to being on the top step so it was a different feeling. But we rode a PB, quicker than we have ever been before at sea level, and for us that is a massive step.
"It also shows we have work to do. You have to have four girls going good on the same day. And they did. The lap speed they must have had to do a 4min 13sec is something we haven't touched in training yet. Hats off to them. The fastest team won."
Britain had fallen half a second behind the Australian quartet of Annette Edmondson, Ashlee Ankudinoff, Amy Cure and Melissa Hoskins after the first 1km of the 4km distance and their deficit continued to grow throughout.
Rowsell peeled off as planned after nine laps having taken two huge turns on the front, but the strategy backfired as the remaining trio failed to reel back in the outstanding Australians, who won by more than three seconds.
It is the first time since 2010 that Britain have not been world champions and throws wide open the race for gold at next year's Olympic Games in Rio.
