‘We have work to do’ says Laura Trott after pursuit defeat at worlds

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/19/british-womens-pursuit-golds-ended-australia-worlds

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Great Britain’s women’s team pursuit squad have been so phenomenally successful since the discipline was placed on the world championship schedule in 2007 that, at times, gold medals have seemed a given. They were finally defeated in a major championship here after a run of 11 major titles and their disappointment was obvious as they stood on the podium after losing not just their title but their world record to Australia.

This was a new feeling for three of them: Laura Trott, Katie Archibald and Elinor Barker had never tasted defeat in a team pursuit at this level before. “A bit gutted, I guess,” was Trott’s reaction. “We rode quicker than we’ve 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.” Australia’s time of 4min 13.683sec was close to a three-second beating of the British women’s record and a sign that to win at the Olympics in Rio 4min 10sec will have to be the target.

It marked the end of a remarkable run of success not merely in cycling but in British sport as a whole – the first time that Great Britain women had been defeated in a world championship since March 2010 in Copenhagen. They had been unbeaten in an international since the event switched to four riders over 4km after the London Olympics and their last defeat of any kind dated back to a World Cup in December 2010, in the days of three women and 3km.

The Britons had qualified second to the Australians, albeit narrowly, before registering a fine yet clearly demanding win over Canada in the second round at a speed which clearly had an effect later in the day. They were not ready for what came next. “I never thought [the Australians] would be three seconds ahead of us,” said Trott. “The lap speed they must have had to do a 4:13 is something we haven’t touched in training yet.

“I was part of the team that was beaten in the World Championships in 2010 and that was just over two years out from London – at the time it was the best thing that could have happened to us,” said Jo Rowsell, who had been a little below par and who slipped off the pace after 2,500m after wearing herself out early on. “[After 2010] we completely changed our training, we got a new coach and the structure changed going into London and that went brilliantly.”

“After we qualified fastest they finished with three and we finished with four and felt comfortable. We thought, ‘we’re really in the hunt here’,” said one of the Australian quartet, Melissa Hoskins. “We still rode a hard second round but they got put under the pump by the Canadians. Everyone lifts for a final, we just lifted more than them. They’ve had a cracking run but finally we got one up on them.”