The pair both moved through to the quarter-finals of the men’s Keirin by comfortably winning their heats overnight, and will resume racing from 7:30pm AEST on 11 August.

For Matthew Glaetzer, he admitted he only switched his mind to the Keirin just hours before he rode, having taken the time to savour his Team Sprint bronze medal from earlier in the week. It was his first medal from four Olympics dating back to London 2012.

“You don’t want to switch on too early and things can go around your head on loop for a pretty long time and that never helps,” he said.

“So it was good to have a couple of days to switch off, catch up with my wife Nikki, share that and soak it in and take the time to reset for the Keirin.

“I’m in pretty good form and just excited to get out there and get some clean races and stay out of trouble.

“There’s so much on the line, everyone is committing and taking big risks so for me it’s just ‘I know I can do it, keep it clean and let it rip’.”

Matthew Richardson said he was pleased with his recovery after winning silver in the men’s Sprint 24 hours earlier.

“Anything is a possibility, Keirins are a bit of a lottery and anything can happen with you or against you so you just keep riding,” he said.

“It’s day six (of competition) now but today is almost a rest day considering it’s just one Keirin so recovery tonight will be pretty good and I’ll come out firing tomorrow.”

In the men’s Madison, Kelland O’Brien and Sam Welsford managed to put themselves into the race by taking some early points but Italy, Denmark and eventual gold medallist Portugal took laps on the field and were unable to be caught. The Australians finished 13th.

“It was hard, I don’t know what the average speed was but it felt quick, obviously we’ve had a big program this week and with all the crashes in the back end of that race you could see the fatigue in riders who have done multiple events this week,” Kelland said.

“It’s not the result we were after but that’s not going to overshadow anything we’ve done this week.”

It caps a big Paris campaign for the pair who were part of Australia’s gold medal-winning Team Pursuit that also broke the world record with Conor Leahy and Oliver Bleddyn this week.

They said they had received messages of congratulations from members of the last Australian team to win Olympic gold in the event in Athens 2004.

“Heaps, they all reached out. Browny (Graeme Brown) messaged us quite a lot and talking to us about what gears (we rode) and telling us to enjoy the experience,” Sam said.

“It’s really cool to have that legacy rolling on and shows how many people watch and support us throughout the years. And you don’t realise how monumental the result was, for us it was 20 years since the last win so to be a part of that is really special and no one can take that away from us.”

After setting a national record in qualifying and fighting her way through an initial repechage, Kristina Clonan was eliminated in the round of eight of the women’s Sprint when she lost to Great Britain’s Emma Finucane and then Canadian Kelsey Mitchell.

“I’ve been training real hard and put my whole soul into this Olympic debut and I really came here not to just participate, so it was fast and I was happy with the time (in qualifying) but the fact of the matter is the whole world is fast,” Kristina said.

“We’re on a world stage here and everyone brings their best at the Olympics and I guess that’s where it put me.

“There’s a lot to be proud of, but there’s also a lot that I was so hungry for. You have to have a goldfish mentality and keep coming back, and man I love this sport and that’s why I just keep coming back.”

Reece Homfray