Charlie Tanfield seeking Paris 2024 redemption after torrid time in Tokyo

Charlie Tanfield will head to Paris 2024 looking to lay the ghosts of Tokyo to rest after his unexpected Olympic debut three years ago went so badly it made him consider quitting cycling.

The Yorkshireman travelled to Japan as the reserve rider in the British men’s team pursuit squad, but was suddenly pressed into action when three-time Olympic champion Ed Clancy announced his snap retirement through injury on the morning of the first round.

So unprepared was the team for Clancy’s abrupt exit that Tanfield spent the day before on a long road ride and it told in that first round as he was quickly dropped by his team-mates before being struck by a Danish team who never expected to find him riding around alone.

Images of the crash, an undignified end to Britain’s 13-year reign as Olympic champions in the event, went global, a horrible moment for the then 24-year-old Tanfield.

“It was heartbreaking because obviously you get the call up to say you’re racing tomorrow and you have this elation,” Tanfield recalled. “Then for it to go so badly is just terrible because, just like everyone else here, we’ve all been working hard just to get to the race.

“For it to not go well was terrible. I didn’t really know if I wanted to continue cycling.

“You don’t quite understand the gravity of it at the time because there was no-one there. I didn’t know what was happening at home. When I came home I didn’t quite realise until my girlfriend was saying, ‘Look, you’re on the front of the newspaper. There’s a picture of you decking it’.

“You understand then that it’s actually what everyone’s actually watching because you’re in a bubble when you’re there. It took me a good few months to actually start riding again. Then I started getting the ball