Changing of the guard: Defending Olympic champions Italy pushed to team pursuit bronze medal final against Denmark

A world record-breaking performance from Australia and a similarly enormous ride from the British team stunned the defending Olympic men’s team pursuit champions Italy at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday.

Australia smashed the world record, becoming the first team to ever ride the 4km team pursuit under 3:41 when they set a new mark of 3:40.73, while Great Britain’s squad beat Tokyo silver medalists Denmark to move onto the gold medal final.