In a fantastic Men’s Team Pursuit final, it was Great Britain who edged past Australia to win their second track cycling gold of Rio 2016.
The quartet of Ed Clancy, Bradley Wiggins, Steven Burke and Owain Doull broke the world record in the semifinals and had to produce an even better race to beat the Australian team of Michael Hepburn, Jack Bobridge, Alexander Edmondson and Sam Welsford.
Before that, the Danish team eased past the team of New Zealand to secure the bronze medal.
Bronze medal: Danes ease to victory
It was the Danish quartet who got off to the better start, leading by over a second after the first kilometre, and that lead grew to 1.616 seconds at the halfway stage.
Denmark’s lead grew slowly over the next 500 meters, though it seemed there could be hope for New Zealand after the Danes dropped to three riders relatively early.
However, just a couple of laps later, the New Zealanders also dropped down to three riders and after that, it simply became a procession, with the Danes winning in a time of 3:53.78; almost three seconds ahead of New Zealand, who came fourth in a time of 3:56:75.
Gold medal: Britain battles to tough win
Britain were the favorites coming into this race after setting a world record of 3:50.57 in Round 1, though a strong start by the Australian quartet, who had brought in Hepburn for the final, saw them go 0.3 seconds up at the 1000 meter stage.
The lead grew over the next kilometre, with the Australians leading by almost 0.7 seconds at the halfway stage, though the British squad started to make some serious inroads on the Australian time.
With six laps to go and with their lead decreasing, Australia suddenly dropped down to three and started to become a bit ragged and with 250 metres to go Britain suddenly took the lead.
With both teams now down to three riders, the final lap proved to be dramatic with a gap appearing within the three British riders, though they fought back to take gold in a world record time of 3:50.26; the Australians took silver in a time of 3:51.00.