There’s only a few hours to go before the track program at the Rio Games begins. On day one of competition at the velodrome, we’ll see the men’s team sprint – qualifying and finals – as well as qualifying for the team pursuit (men and women).
Now on staff at RIDE Media is Luke Davison, one of the six Australians who were part of the line-up that won the world title earlier this year.
As something of a preview, we decided to sit down and talk about pursuiting for a little while. This is a glorious event with many complexities and numerous strong personalities (and legs). Australia has a rich history in the event and there’s an amazing ongoing rivalry with the British team.
In London in 2012, Team GB set the world record, beating the Australians for the gold medal.
In London in 2016, Australian posted the third fastest time in history in the final of the world championships… beating the Brits for the gold medal.
In this podcast, we consider the strengths of some of the nine teams for the men’s team pursuit in Rio and Davison offers some insight on what we can expect from the qualifying session of a most anticipated event.
• The start list of the men’s team pursuit
Click the link below to listen to Rob Arnold and Luke Davison talk about team pursuit…
“Typically at a World Cup or a world championships you’d generally have more teams so it’s going to be quite interesting,” said Davison about the Olympic event which will see the Australians race at 6.23am on 12 August (AEST).
“We’re going to be in the third of it after only three or four rides. It’s a bit of an unknown as to how quick some of these teams will go.”
Silver, gold and bronze… Great Britain, Australia and Denmark on the podium at the world championships earlier this year.
Photo: Graham Watson
