ED CLANCY admits more speed is needed as Great Britain’s team pursuit squad rode through a wall of noise to book a gold medal ride tomorrow at the UCI World Cup in London.

World champions Australia will be the ones to beat after posting the quickest qualifying time, covering the 4km distance in 3:57.885, nearly six tenths of a second faster than their arch-rivals.

Australia have dominated the team pursuit since Great Britain won Olympic gold in a world record, winning two of the last three world titles.

And they’ve made no secret they were arriving in London to claim some pre-Games bragging rights on their rival’s new home ground, before they host next month’s World Championships in Melbourne.

Huddersfield racer Clancy admitted to being stunned by the noise generated by a sell-out and partisan 6,000 crowd at the Olympic Velodrome but is determined to give them something to really cheer about in tomorrow’s final.

However, he knows a big improvement will be needed.

“It was a great feeling to be out there with all that support but we’re a bit disappointed with the time,” he admitted.

“It was a little slower than we were hoping for but we’ve moved on from the Europeans and we’ll need to move on again for the World Championships and again for the Olympics.

“Even after we set the world record in the Olympics we always thought we could go quicker, so we are never really satisfied.

“We made a flying start in the first kilometre but we faded and that is something we need to work on.”

After striking gold in China Clancy made no excuse for several days hard partying with teammate and best mate Geraint Thomas, although now they are the sensible heads in a team that also includes Steve Burke and Pete Kennaugh.

“Riding here will take some getting used to because the crowd are so loud it’s difficult to communicate, that is something we can take from this event and work on before the Olympics,” added Clancy.

“Normally we only get that kind of support at the start and finish. For a qualifying race it was just bizarre, it was mental, it was just a wall of noise all the way around.

“It’s quite strange that we now have two days off but we won’t be allowed back on the track. We’ll go for a bit of a road ride to keep sharp but we can’t wait to get back out there.”

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