Australia defends team pursuit crown at track world cycling championships

Close-up of Jack Bobridge cycling in velodrome

Australian Institute of Sport cyclist Jack Bobridge will compete at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Melbourne.

The Australian Cyclones topped this year’s UCI Track Cycling World Championships with their best ever result: eight gold, two silver and one bronze. Photo by Hannes Roth courtesy of Union Cycliste Internationale.

24 Mar 2011

Australian Institute of Sport athletes have blitzed the field, winning gold and defending their world title in the men’s team pursuit event on the opening day of the 2011 UCI Track World Cycling Championships in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands.

At the championships, which run from 23 to 27 March, AIS athletes Rohan Dennis, Michael Hepburn and Luke Durbridge teamed up with ex-AIS scholarship holder Jack Bobridge to claim gold, recording a time of 3:57.832.

The Australians beat Russia (4:02.229) by almost four and a half seconds in the final of the men’s pursuit race. Great Britain finished in third place (4:02.781).

Given the cooler conditions and relatively slow track, the Australian team’s time was particularly fast.

Three-time junior world champion Durbridge, who narrowly missed out on selection as a member of Australia’s pursuit team last year, was thrilled with the result.

‘I'm lost for words a little bit and it will take a while to sink in,’ he said.

‘I trained with these guys all last year and the year before and it's so good to come here and experience it. It keeps you hungry for the next year and I'm really happy and glad I could win it with these guys.’

Cycling Australia’s National Men’s Track Endurance Coach, Ian McKenzie, said the competition will hot up in the lead-up to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

‘There’s no doubt the Russians are coming,’ McKenzie said. ‘Our plan was to ride to schedule on a 3.58 to the two kilometre mark and then see where we were against them, but they hit the front (on lap six) so we started racing then.

‘That’s the best part I reckon. I’d much rather have a race than qualifying, just going for a time. To get a good time is rewarding, but I think it’s all about the racing for me, and the spectators and riders enjoy it more too.’

The AIS Track Cycling program, based in Adelaide, supports the training and development of the nation’s best sprint cyclists by providing access to leading coaching and sports science expertise and world-class training facilities such as the Adelaide Super-Drome