Filippo Ganna inspired Italy to a long-awaited gold medal in the men's team pursuit as they produced an electrifying finish to stun favourites Denmark in a see-sawing final at the Izu Velodrome on Wednesday.
The Azzurri trailed in the closing stages of the 16-lap duel but lead engine Ganna turned up the power and they blasted across the line in a world record 3:42.032, with the Danes an agonising 0.166 slower.
The Danes then turned the screws to open up what looked like a decisive lead, and with less than four laps remaining their foursome of Lasse Norman Hansen, Niklas Larsen, Frederick Madsen and Rasmus Pedersen had a buffer of almost a second. It was quite a comeback by Ganna who missed out on a medal by two seconds in the 44km road time trial.
"We're incredibly disappointed right now. We've been training towards and hoping for gold for such a long time, so right now we are super disappointed," Hansen said. They arrived as the team to beat but became mired in controversy on Tuesday after protests from other teams, notably Britain, that they had used illegal taping on their shins to gain an advantage in Monday's qualifying rounds.
The men's sprint got under way on Wednesday flying Dutchmen Jeffrey Hoogland and Harrie Lavreysen living up to their favourites' tag in the opening rounds.
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