Behind the success of the German sprint team at the Track World Cup in Aguascalientes, the German record set by the four-track team almost disappeared. Henning Bommel, Theo Reinhardt, Nils Schomber and Kersten Thiele burned a truly remarkable performance on the fast track. At an altitude of almost 1900 meters, the quartet improved the 13-year-old German record in the team pursuit over 4000 meters to an outstanding 3:59,144 minutes. The old record since the success in the final of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney was 3:59,781 minutes. The foursome had already achieved the record run of 16 laps in qualifying. The special thing about it: Of all the teams, the German foursome completed the last kilometer the fastest with 57,304 seconds. The fact that the finals were still just missed was a small drop of bitterness. In the end, Australia secured victory with a top time of 3:55,841 minutes, around two and a half seconds ahead of Denmark, Great Britain and New Zealand.
"The gap to the top nations has narrowed considerably, and we were able to leave our fiercest competitors for Olympic qualification – Belgium, Switzerland, and Spain – behind us. The team has therefore taken another important step forward ," commented national coach Sven Meyer on the performance. The sports directorate of the German Cycling Federation was also pleased: "What the guys have shown is a further improvement in their performance ," said Patrick Moster.