Cycling: Chris Hoy’s Team GB disqualified from world championships

THE Great Britain team led by Chris Hoy were disqualified from the team sprint at the Track Cycling World Championships in Melbourne today.

Team GB’s surprise German-born pick Philip Hindes infringed with an illegal changeover between riders during the race.

The British trio of Hoy, Hindes and Jason Kenny initially thought they had advanced to the third-placed ride-off, but the takeover between Hindes and Kenny - the first and second riders, respectively - took place too soon. Hindes is a 19-year-old specialist starter who was making his World Championships debut.

Defending champions Germany, who had qualified second fastest, were also among four of the 17 teams relegated, leaving France to contest the final with Australia.

Australia won in 43.266sec, 0.001 ahead of France. New Zealand edged Japan to win the bronze.

Hoy refused to blame Hindes. The Edinburgh-born quadruple Olympic champion said: “I think he (Hindes) is upset, he’s alright but we’ve already spoken to him and said, ‘Don’t worry about it, you should be really proud of yourself, the way you’ve ridden today’.”

There was better news for Britain elsewhere on the track. The quartet of Edward Clancy, Steven Burke, Peter Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas posted a world record time of 3min 53.295sec to win the men’s 4,000 metres team pursuit and upset world champions Australia at a heaving Hisense Arena.