In the afternoon, we make our way to the main OAKA stadium for two evening events.
We had bought tickets to this cycling session (eighteen months earlier) because Britain won silver in the Men’s Team Sprint in Sydney and were World Champions in 2002.
The British team (Jamie Staff, Craig MacLean and Chris Hoy) are in heat four with the Dutch. In a slow heat they qualify in seventh for the knock-out phase.
Emma Davies rides for Britain in the Women’s Individual Pursuit. She also qualifies for the later stages, in seventh place.
In the first round of the Men’s Team Sprint, Britain face Germany in Heat Three. In the first heat Australia (who had qualified in fifth) beat Spain, and the Japanese beat Holland, the team that had outperformed Britain earlier.
The British have made a change to the team, bringing in former Olympic Champion Jason Queally for Craig MacLean. The Germans headed Great Britain after the first lap by 0.152 seconds, and 0.289 seconds after the second lap. Despite a momentous effort from Olympic champion Chris Hoy, the British team failed by 0.120 seconds.
In the final heat, the World champions from France completed their expected victory over the Greeks.
Great Britain had recorded the second best time; 44.075, but as only winners progress to the medal ride-offs, they are eliminated. The gold medal final is between the fastest two winners, so Great Britain miss out on a riding for a medal due to their earlier poor qualifying round performance.
The bronze medal ride off is between Britain’s Rob Hayles and the 2004 World Champion, Sergi Escobar of Spain. The Spaniard leads from start to finish and comfortably takes the bronze medal
Bradley Wiggins won the gold medal in 4:16.304 against Brad McGee (Australia), 4:20.436. The Australian led at the first kilometre before the Briton increased his lead on every lap in the second half of the race. McGee’s silver medal improved on his two bronze medals won in this event at the two previous Olympic Games. But the result was a reversal of the two’s Commonwealth Games encouter in 2002.
Mickael Bourgain, Laurent Gane and Arnaud Tournant (France) won the bronze medal race against Australia, then the German, conquorers of the British team, secured the Gold. Jens Fiedler, Stefan Nimke and Rene Wolff defeated Toshiaki Fushimi, Masaki Inoue and Tomohiro Nagatsuka, of Japan, by 0.346 seconds after trailing on the first lap.
We had never been to a velodrome prior to these Games, but had thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We had come chasing gold and had been delighted to see two, even if they hadn’t quite been the ones that we had expected. With the rowing gold from this morning we have now seen three winning performances, and now we have our first visit to the athletics.