HUDDERSFIELD racer Ed Clancy says there’s no way Great Britain’s pursuit team are ready to throw in the towel as they chase Olympic glory this year.
Beaten by Australia in the weekend’s UCI World Cup in London, Clancy and teammates Geraint Thomas, Pete Kennaugh and Steve Burke are determined to make up the difference.
“I’m pretty confident we’ve got more to come, not that the Aussies haven’t,” said Olympic gold medalist and former Holme Valley Wheelers rider Clancy.
“We’d like to win the Worlds but we want to win the Olympics a lot more. The big day will be the end of the war – this was just a little battle.”
However, Clancy knows that Australia will only improve, with a forthcoming World Championship in their own backyard only likely to top up their brimming confidence.
But he claimed a small error made their winning margin at the Olympic velodrome larger than it should have been.
“This is as quick as we went into the last Olympic cycle and we appreciate we are up against it this time,” he added.
“The Aussies are pretty much a superstar team this time but it doesn’t mean we’re throwing in the towel.
“We had a bit of an error mid race when Geraint clipped Pete’s wheel and almost hit the fence, so that didn’t make things easy and we lost a bit of momentum.
“But to be honest even without that I think the Aussies were the best team out here and we knew it would be very tough.
“We knew if they got it right they’d go quick, which they did so fair play to them.”
Performance director Dave Brailsford also refused to be downbeat despite the result.
“We are on the right trajectory and there is no panic from us,” he said.
“We always knew it was going to be tough and the Australians are an incredibly powerful team. But don’t doubt the character in this team.”
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