Cycling at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's team pursuit

These are the official results of the men's team pursuit at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico, held on 19 to 21 October 1968. There were 85 participants from 20 nations.^[1]

Men's cycling team pursuit at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Velodrome, Mexico City
Date	19-21 October 1968
Competitors	84 from 20 nations
Medalists
Gunnar Asmussen, Reno Olsen, Mogens Frey Jensen, Per Lyngemark, Peder Pedersen  Denmark Udo Hempel, Karl Link, Karl-Heinz Henrichs, Jürgen Kissner, Rainer Podlesch  West Germany Lorenzo Bosisio, Cipriano Chemello, Luigi Roncaglia, Giorgio Morbiato, Gino Pancino  Italy
← 1964 1972 →

Competition format

The team pursuit competition consisted of a qualifying round and a 3-round knockout tournament, including a bronze medal race. Each race, in both the qualifying round and the knock-out rounds, consisted of two teams of 4 cyclists each starting from opposite sides of the track. The teams raced for 4,000 metres, attempting to finish with the fastest time (measured by the third rider) and, if possible, catch the other team. For the qualifying round, the eight fastest times overall (regardless of whether the team finished first or second in its heat, though any team that was overtaken was eliminated) earned advancement to the knockout rounds. In the knockout rounds, the winner of each heat advanced to the next round. Teams could change members between rounds.^[2]

Results

Qualifying round

Taiwan (heat 1) and Congo-Kinshasa (heat 2) had teams entered but did not compete.

Rank	Heat	Cyclists	Nation	Time	Notes
1	10	Lorenzo Bosisio Cipriano Chemello Luigi Roncaglia Giorgio Morbiato	Italy	4:16.10	Q
2	11	Stanislav Moskvin Vladimir Kuznetsov Mikhail Kolyushev Viktor Bykov	Soviet Union	4:19.29	Q
3	9	Udo Hempel Karl Link Karl-Heinz Henrichs Rainer Podlesch	West Germany	4:19.90	Q
4	8	Jiří Daler Pavel Kondr Milan Puzrla František Řezáč	Czechoslovakia	4:21.88	Q
5	6	Gunnar Asmussen Reno Olsen Mogens Frey Jensen Per Lyngemark	Denmark	4:23.58	Q
6	8	Wojciech Matusiak Janusz Kierzkowski Wacław Latocha Rajmund Zieliński	Poland	4:23.77	Q
7	11	Bernard Darmet Daniel Rébillard Jack Mourioux Alain van Lancker	France	4:24.45	Q
8	5	Ernest Bens Ronny Vanmarcke Willy Debosscher Paul Crapez	Belgium	4:26.14	Q
9	5	Ernesto Contreras Juan Alberto Merlos Roberto Breppe Carlos Miguel Álvarez	Argentina	4:26.22
10	7	Heinz Richter Wolfgang Schmelzer Rudolf Franz Manfred Ulbricht	East Germany	4:26.61
11	7	Piet Hoekstra Henk Nieuwkamp Klaas Balk Joop Zoetemelk	Netherlands	4:27.17
12	10	Ian Alsop Harry Jackson Ian Hallam Ronald Keeble	Great Britain	4:28.49
13	9	Walter Richard Jürgen Schneider Bruno Hubschmid Xaver Kurmann	Switzerland	4:28.71
14	4	Gösta Pettersson Sture Pettersson Erik Pettersson Tomas Pettersson	Sweden	4:30.03
15	6	Heriberto Díaz Agustín Alcántara Adolfo Belmonte Radamés Treviño	Mexico	4:30.78
16	3	Luis Saldarriaga Severo Hernández Mario Vanegas Martín Emilio Rodríguez	Colombia	4:31.98
17	3	David Chauner Skip Cutting Steve Maaranen John Vande Velde	United States	4:32.87
18	2	Sergio Martínez Roberto Menéndez Raúl Marcelo Vázquez Inocente Lizano	Cuba	4:34.96
19	4	Robert Farrell Phillip Richardson Salim Mohammed Noel Luces	Trinidad and Tobago	4:48.64
20	1	Pakanit Boriharnvanakhet Somchai Chantarasamrit Boontom Prasongquamdee Chainarong Sophonpong	Thailand	4:56.80

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal 1

Rank	Cyclists	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Lorenzo Bosisio Cipriano Chemello Luigi Roncaglia Giorgio Morbiato	Italy	4:22.48	Q
2	Ernest Bens Ronny Vanmarcke Willy Debosscher Paul Crapez	Belgium	4:26.05

Quarterfinal 2

Rank	Cyclists	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Stanislav Moskvin Vladimir Kuznetsov Mikhail Kolyushev Viktor Bykov	Soviet Union	4:26.63	Q
2	Bernard Darmet Daniel Rébillard Jack Mourioux Alain van Lancker	France	4:30.10

Quarterfinal 3

Rank	Cyclists	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Udo Hempel Karl Link Karl-Heinz Henrichs Rainer Podlesch	West Germany	4:27.14	Q
2	Wojciech Matusiak Janusz Kierzkowski Wacław Latocha Rajmund Zieliński	Poland	4:38.91

Quarterfinal 4

Rank	Cyclists	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Gunnar Asmussen Reno Olsen Mogens Frey Jensen Per Lyngemark	Denmark	4:27.02	Q
2	Jiří Daler Pavel Kondr Milan Puzrla František Řezáč	Czechoslovakia	4:30.76

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Cyclists	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Udo Hempel Karl Link Karl-Heinz Henrichs Jürgen Kissner	West Germany	4:15.76	Q
2	Lorenzo Bosisio Cipriano Chemello Luigi Roncaglia Gino Pancino	Italy	4:16.21	B

Semifinal 2

Rank	Cyclists	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Gunnar Asmussen Reno Olsen Mogens Frey Jensen Peder Pedersen	Denmark	4:19.87	Q
2	Dzintars Lācis Stanislav Moskvin Vladimir Kuznetsov Viktor Bykov	Soviet Union	4:20.39	B

Finals

Bronze medal match

Rank	Cyclists	Nation	Time
	Lorenzo Bosisio Cipriano Chemello Luigi Roncaglia Giorgio Morbiato	Italy	4:18.35
4	Dzintars Lācis Stanislav Moskvin Vladimir Kuznetsov Mikhail Kolyushev	Soviet Union	4:33.39

Final

West Germany led throughout. At one point, Kissner's hand appeared to touch teammate Henrichs. East Germany (Henrichs was a defector) protested, resulting in West Germany's disqualification. It was initially announced that Italy and the Soviet Union would move up to silver and bronze medals, respectively, but West Germany protested and the judges determined that Italy would retain bronze and the Soviet Union would be in fourth place; however, the silver medal place was at least temporarily vacant. A decision of the FIAC later awarded West Germany the silver medals.^[1]

Rank	Cyclists	Nation	Time
	Gunnar Asmussen Reno Olsen Mogens Frey Jensen Per Lyngemark	Denmark	4:22.44
	Udo Hempel Karl Link Karl-Heinz Henrichs Jürgen Kissner	West Germany	DSQ (4:18.94)

Final classification

Rank	Name	Nationality
	Gunnar Asmussen Reno Olsen Mogens Frey Jensen Per Lyngemark Peder Pedersen	Denmark
	Udo Hempel Karl Link Karl-Heinz Henrichs Jürgen Kissner Rainer Podlesch	West Germany
	Lorenzo Bosisio Cipriano Chemello Luigi Roncaglia Giorgio Morbiato Gino Pancino	Italy
4	Dzintars Lācis Stanislav Moskvin Vladimir Kuznetsov Mikhail Kolyushev Viktor Bykov	Soviet Union
5	Ernest Bens Ronny Vanmarcke Willy Debosscher Paul Crapez	Belgium
	Jiří Daler Pavel Kondr Milan Puzrla František Řezáč	Czechoslovakia
	Bernard Darmet Daniel Rébillard Jack Mourioux Alain van Lancker	France
	Wojciech Matusiak Janusz Kierzkowski Wacław Latocha Rajmund Zieliński	Poland
9	Pakanit Boriharnvanakhet Somchai Chantarasamrit Boontom Prasongquamdee Chainarong Sophonpong	Thailand
	Sergio Martínez Roberto Menéndez Raúl Marcelo Vázquez Inocente Lizano	Cuba
	David Chauner Skip Cutting Steve Maaranen John Vande Velde	United States
	Gösta Pettersson Sture Pettersson Erik Pettersson Tomas Pettersson	Sweden
	Heinz Richter Wolfgang Schmelzer Rudolf Franz Manfred Ulbricht	East Germany
	Luis Saldarriaga Severo Hernández Mario Vanegas Martín Rodríguez	Colombia
	Robert Farrell Phillip Richardson Salim Mohammed Noel Luces	Trinidad and Tobago
	Ernesto Contreras Juan Alberto Merlos Roberto Breppe Carlos Miguel Álvarez	Argentina
	Heriberto Díaz Agustín Alcántara Adolfo Belmonte Radamés Treviño	Mexico
	Piet Hoekstra Henk Nieuwkamp Klaas Balk Joop Zoetemelk	Netherlands
	Walter Richard Jürgen Schneider Bruno Hubschmid Xaver Kurmann	Switzerland
	Ian Alsop Harry Jackson Ian Hallam Ronald Keeble	Great Britain