 Bobridge rides with US-based Garmin-Slipstream UCI ProTeam
Australia's Jack Bobridge says he is "stunned" to have broken Chris Boardman's 15-year-old world record in the four kilometre individual pursuit. Bobridge, 21, clocked four minutes 10.534 seconds in an Australian National Track Championships heat at the Dunc Gray Velodrome in Sydney. He was 0.58 secs quicker than Britain's Boardman was in 1996, four years after he was Olympic champion in the event. Boardman told BBC Sport Bobridge had produced an "incredible performance". Bobridge's was not the only outstanding performance in Sydney. Team-mate Rohan Dennis posted a time of 4:13.399 during his heat - the third-fastest time in history behind Boardman. But the 42-year-old Briton, now leading research and development work for the British cycling team, said GB would remain unflustered by the latest sign of Australian improvement, which follows their poor outing in the velodrome at the 2008 Beijing Games.  | If the individual pursuit was an Olympic discipline, we would have Bradley Wiggins, Geraint Thomas and some other young lads focusing on this |
Bradley Wiggins won the individual pursuit title for Great Britain in Beijing but the event was subsequently dropped from the London Olympic programme by cycling's world governing body, the UCI, so Bobridge will not have an opportunity to convert his new record into an Olympic medal. "His time is quite amazing. A lot of people never thought it would happen," said Boardman. "But if it was an Olympic discipline, we would have Bradley Wiggins, Geraint Thomas and some other young lads focusing on this. "As soon as it was taken out of the Olympics, our national team - very much Olympic-focused - absolutely stopped thinking about it completely. That competition ended. "The Australians still hold it in high esteem, which is nice to see, and they've stuck with it. "But the term that's been used for the British in the past is 'passionately ruthless' - our performance programme is funded to chase Olympic gold medals, period. If this doesn't count then why am I expending energy on it? It's a nice-to-have but ultimately it isn't the job." Anna Meares picked up Australia's only cycling medal in 2008, a silver in the women's individual sprint, compared to Britain's eight golds and 14 medals in total. Bobridge won individual pursuit gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games - with Britain's top cyclists absent - and took part in the Beijing Olympic team pursuit, in which Australia came fourth and Britain took gold. He rides with United States-based Garmin-Slipstream UCI ProTeam, and was also a member of the Australian four-man team that won gold in the team pursuit at the 2010 Track Cycling World Championships. "I didn't think the record was going to come for a long time - I certainly didn't think it would come while I was on the track," Bobridge told reporters in Australia. "To come around and see that on the board, I was honestly quite shocked. "I thought the clock had stopped a lap early, so I had to look at it a few times, but then I saw everyone going crazy, and then it started to get a little overwhelming." Boardman was the world time trial champion in 1994, took Britain's first cycling gold for 72 years, at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, won three stages of the Tour de France and wore the yellow jersey on three separate occasions and set numerous world records - some of which still stand. "This is a marker that shows Australia are in excellent condition," he said. "Clearly they've got some strength in depth. They had a bad time in Beijing, then they went away and have reassessed. I'm aware they've been doing some wind tunnel testing - they've learned from what we have been doing and they are hungry for success. "I expect them to be Olympic-standard this year and we'll see what we've got to contend with at the Olympics, but it's better to know than to not find out until after the event. "There is no good or bad, there is just information. When you have that information you can work with it."
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