Charlie Tanfield bounced back from a crash-filled Olympic debut by helping GB’s team pursuit set the British record. 

The 24-year-old from Great Ayton only travelled to Japan as a reserve, but was called in at the eleventh hour after Ed Clancy had aggravated a back injury that forced him to withdraw and call time on his Olympic career. 

With less than a day’s notice – Tanfield had been out for a ride on the road on Monday – the 2018 world champion was thrown into an impossible situation for his Olympic debut that ended with a spectacular crash in the first-round race against Denmark. 

GB’s team pursuit title reign was ended in that crash, the first time since 2004 that they had not won the event. 

But a day later they responded in style to beat Switzerland and take seventh in a British record, a small consolation after a nightmare 24 hours.

He said: “I put myself out there and at first it wasn’t what I was expecting an Olympic experience to be like. But I knew I had good legs in there somewhere and it was a case of putting it together and working as a team.  

“I haven’t done a full team pursuit in quite a while because when you’re the reserve you don’t really get the chance to go in much. I hadn’t done a full team pursuit effort in such a long time. I thought with my first ride I’d give it my best shot, give it everything.  

“It didn’t go our way but at least today we executed. It might not have been the time we were looking for but under the circumstances we kind of worked it out alright for where I was at currently. But the lads were absolutely flying which is great to see,” said Tanfield who has been able to train full time and benefit from world class facilities, technology, coaching and support teams thanks to National Lottery funding.

Tanfield was one of the subjects of an iconic image to emerge from the Velodrome, with Denmark’s Frederik Madsen screaming while standing over him after the crash, which left the Brit with cuts and bruises.

Tanfield was not at fault, having just lost the wheel of the GB team but within his rights to ride the racing line. 

And while he was not particularly impressed with Madsen’s actions, he was keen to move on from it. 

He added: “He apologised to me. Initially I didn’t really realise what he said or did because I just got straight back on the bike because we had a chance to still win. So we didn’t really know.  

“It wasn’t very sportsmanlike. I wasn’t very impressed by his behaviour but he apologised and we move on.  

“It looked personal but we’ve all committed three years of our life to this and for anything bad to happen, it’s devastating so you can be angry. Just don’t take it out on me.”

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