Fourth Olympic dream the focus for track star

ED Clancy’s hopes of winning the men’s team pursuit at the Track Cycling World Championships are over after the first day of the event in Berlin.

The Huddersfield rider, a threetime Olympic champion, and the rest of the British quartet – Ethan Hayter, Charlie Tanfield and Ollie Wood – set a time of 3:50.341, half a second faster than the ride that won them silver in Pruszkow 12 months ago.

But the rapid rate of progression from teams around the world was on full show as a nation that has won the Olympic title at each of the last three Games found themselves well off the pace – a concerning sign just a few months ahead of Tokyo.

The Danish quartet of Lasse Hansen, Julius Johansen, Fredrik Madsen and Rasmus Pedersen set a time of three minutes 46.579 seconds to smash the mark of 3:48.012 set by Australia in the final of last year’s World Championships.

Australia, without the injured Kelland O’Brien and having seen their world record fall, also missed out on a shot at the gold medal ride as they finished fifth in the session, behind Denmark, New Zealand, France and Italy.

It backs up Clancy’s belief that securing a fourth team pursuit title in Tokyo this summer would be his greatest achievement.

A former pupil at Shelley College in Huddersfield, the 34-year-old had to overcome back surgery to add the Olympic title in Rio to those won in Beijing and London, but even after that experience he says things only get harder.

“Every Olympic cycle it becomes harder to achieve essentially the same thing,” said the Huddersfield Town fan. “You’ve got to defy illness, injury, the constant hoops of selection you’ve got to keep jumping through.

“And then you have to do the same thing four years later when some of your intellectual knowledge may have spread through the rest of the world. If we can do it a fourth time, it’s a big dream of mine... It wouldn’t only be the biggest achievement, it would be the toughest one as well.”

Clancy already ranks as one of Britain’s most successful Olympians, even if his profile does not necessarily match. “His lack of image proportional to his Olympic success is perhaps because cycling has been so successful,” says GB team-mate Kian Emadi.

“The team as a whole maybe gets more recognition.

“But he has won Beijing, London, and Rio, and a bronze in the omnium in London. He is on a level with some of the rowers, Steve Redgrave potentially, huge names.

“I don’t know whether he likes it or not, it depends what day you get him on, but it’s a testament to how committed and how good an athlete he is that he’s been able to do that for the best part of 12 years.”

Despite yesterday’s disappointment, Clancy remains confident in their strategy of peaking for the Games.

“This is an Olympic programme,” he said. “We target one race in August every four years.

“We eat as well as we can and sleep as well as can and train effectively as possible with one race in mind.

“So the World Championships is not be quite as impressive as whatever we do in another five months’ time.”