Jason Kenny and Chris Hoy kept telling young Philip Hindes, the newcomer to their sprinting team, to treat his Olympic debut like just another training ride.
So the 19-year-old Hindes scorched the pine wood surface of the velodrome yesterday to post the best opening lap of his life, and Kenny and Hoy finished off a ride to remember in breaking their own world record and winning Britain’s second straight Olympic team sprint gold medal.
“They just said, ‘Take it like another training session, because it’s nothing different,’” Hindes said. “I just thought about it like any other training session.”
Few of those end up with a gold medal draped around the neck.
The British time of 42.600 seconds bettered the record of 42.747 that the trio had set in the previous round. France won the silver medal with a time of 43.013 seconds, while Germany managed to beat the Australian team to claim the bronze.
“We came across a very strong British team,” French rider Gregory Bauge said.
Hindes replaced the retired Jamie Staff from the crew that won gold at the Beijing Games, and did so admirably, giving the home nation the lead after the opening lap.
Kenny and Hoy, two of the best sprinters in the world, only added to it.
“Not many athletes get to compete in front of a home crowd,” said Hoy, who matched rower Steve Redgrave’s British record of five Olympic golds. “Very few have a chance to win a gold medal.”
The French team of Bauge, Kevin Sireau and Michael D’Almeida could only shake their heads at a British team determined to build on its cycling success.
It was clear from the outset that the new velodrome in the Olympic Park was fast.
The women’s world record was broken by Britain’s Victoria Pendleton and Jessica Varnish during qualifying, only for the Chinese pair of Gong Jinjie and Guo Shuang to lower the time.
The men’s qualifying heats merely toppled Olympic marks.
China posted a time of 43.751 seconds in the first heat to successfully go off, and France lowered the time to 43.097, before the British qualified first in 43.065 seconds.
France posted a time of 42.991 to briefly set a new Olympic mark, but the British team tore over the track in a time of 42.747 seconds, smashing the record of 42.914 set by Germany at the World Cup race last December in Cali, Colombia.
It was a world record that wouldn’t stand much longer.
The team’s epic ride in the final wrapped up a sixth career medal for Hoy, who won three golds in Beijing to become Sir Chris Hoy — he was knighted for the performance.
The Chinese team thought it had won Olympic gold in the women’s race, twice setting the world record along the way, only to be disqualified — the technical term is relegated — after their victory lap for making an illegal change when the second rider took over.
The German team of Miriam Welte and Kristina Vogel was elevated to gold. The Chinese team wound up with the silver medal, and Australia beat Ukraine for the bronze.