Britain’s cyclists endured a disappointing day at the Track World Championships in London with the women’s team sprint duo of Jess Varnish and Katy Marchant failing to secure a place at the Rio Olympics.
There was also a setback in the men’s team sprint where Jason Kenny, Philip Hindes and Callum Skinner — who will be in Rio — failed to make tonight’s final.
Given the success story on the track since the Beijing Games, the mere notion of a British team failing to even qualify for the Olympics was almost unconscionable but to reach Rio, Varnish and Marchant needed to finish two places higher than France.
The pair had said they did not want to focus on the mathematical requirements today, instead hoping a desire to win would be enough. The pair could have been well behind the field, however, as long as they finished two places ahead of France. In the event, they calmly handled the false start that held up their race against Canada to post a reasonable but not sufficiently imposing time of 32.903sec.
“He doesn’t go to the Worlds or a World Cup thinking: ‘I cannot be bothered’
The Netherlands became a welcome buffer between France and Great Britain, completing their two laps in 33.133sec, but no other nation were as accommodating. It meant that not only did Team GB fail to reach Rio, but they also finished fifth, missing out on the final of the team sprint at this meeting too.
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Although the men’s sprint team will also not compete in this evening’s final, after finishing sixth, Sir Chris Hoy believes that Kenny, now the elder statesman in the pack, still has what it takes to “terrify” his opponents.
Kenny is, in many ways, the opposite type of sprint cyclist to Hoy. Kenny was compared to a bear in hibernation by Shane Sutton, the technical director of British Cycling, and it is clear that his laid back approach is frustrating for his coaches. But Hoy argues that Kenny’s ability to burst into form when it really matters will be even more frustrating for those hoping to wrest his Olympic titles from him in Rio.
“Some athletes, like Jason, he sees the Olympics as the end goal and he has a plan to get there,” Hoy said.
“It’s not that he doesn’t want to win. He doesn’t go to the Worlds or a World Cup thinking: ‘I cannot be bothered.’ He still wants to do it.
“There is obviously something that doesn’t quite engage mentally or physically until it really counts. It’s quite a nice thing to have in many ways because his rivals will be terrified.
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“They won’t know what is happening with him.”
Kenny has won only one world title since his double sprint success at the London Games. By contrast, Hoy, an 11-time world champion, describes himself as needing to win every race no matter its status.
“Every race mattered to me. I tried to win every single race. Even the Keirin first and second rounds, when the top three would be enough to qualify, I had to win every race,” he said.
“I don’t think it was that I was trying to establish a sense of invincibility. I never saw myself as that way. I never thought I was invincible. I thought it was a mistake to think that. You are actually vulnerable if you do.”
It would, however, be a mistake to assume that Kenny does not care outside of the Olympics, argues Hoy, who today helped launch #DiscoverYourPower, a talent ID programme for British Cycling and UK Sport.
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“The frustration is perhaps being perceived as someone who cannot be arsed. He can. He wants it as much as anybody else,” he said.
“It is just that for whatever reason, it’s not happened. It’s not that he hasn’t trained hard.
“If you go down on any day, from the London Games to Rio, you watch them train, he will be in there giving it everything. Form is just frustrating. We don’t understand it. If it was easy everyone would know how to train and how to peak at the right time.
“Half science, half art. He has shown that he can get it right when it counts in the past and hopefully he can do it again.”
The one bright spot came in the form of Hindes who, as predicted by Hoy, turned in a blistering opening lap of 17.030, a personal best and the fastest in the field.
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Earlier in the day there was a resounding reception for the Great Britain team — and in particular for Sir Bradley Wiggins — in the qualification round for the team pursuit. The team completed the 4,000 metres in 3.55.664 just ahead of Australia, who recorded a time of 3.55.867. New Zealand, surprisingly, struggled and will hope to make amends in the all-Antipodean round.
Team GB will face Italy in the next phase and although conditions are not conducive to a new world record, a gold medal for the host nation looks enticingly probable tomorrow.