Team GB picked up a 1,000th medal in their Olympic history as the men’s pursuit riders won silver at the velodrome.
Australia had been the clear favourites for gold after qualifying 1.5seconds quicker for the final.
But the British line-up, with a change from the previous rounds as Dan Bigham came in for Ollie Wood, pushed the Australian’s mightily close.
They had a 0.160s deficit to make up in the final few hundred metres when Ethan Hayter’s legs seemed to give way from a final effort, he slipped off his saddle and did well to stay upright. With that, the British challenge was ended.
Afterwards, Hayter said: "We were so close and I could see it. It was nearly five laps at the end and I just really gave too much, and my whole body went weak and I really struggled to hold myself on the bike in the end.
"Sorry to the guys but I think we gave everything and we can be proud of that silver medal. We were super happy to win a silver medal but it was really there for the taking for us and we kind of knew that. We went out to get it but just came short in the end, so it's a shame."
Despite the late disappointment of the final, it was a vast improvement on the team’s showing at the last Olympics where they were caught by Denmark in the earlier rounds and the Danish crashed into British rider Charlie Tanfield.
Tanfield was back again in the quartet in Paris along with Bigham, who had somehow come away unscathed from a crash of his own in practice in the French capital, Hayter and Vernon.
In truth, Britain had their work cut out to catch the Aussies, the form quartet, prior to his late mishap, and this cycling Ashes went the way of Australia.
Shortly after, Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris and Jessica Roberts clinched bronze in the women’s team pursuit, beating Italy by more than two-and-a-half seconds.
The quartet, who were weakened by the absence of Katie Archibald when she broke her leg falling in her garden, had fallen over a second behind but clawed it back and finished well clear for GB medal 1,001.
Following the medal, Knight said: “I could not be more proud of these girls. Six weeks ago when Katie Archibald broke her ankle, I felt like my Olympic dream had gone down the rain a little bit after committing to team pursuit.
“But we re-strategised, we bought Jess into the team and I could not be more proud of us getting on an Olympic podium.”
