Carlin left listening again as Dutch call the tune in team sprint

Jack Carlin knows the score by now. He knows what it’s like to stand on the podium listening to someone else’s anthem and wondering what might have been.

It happened before, during and since the Olympics in Tokyo, and it happened again in Paris on Tuesday.

And, as usual, there was a Dutchman or three celebrating some unfathomable feat of cycling on the step above him.

In the oppressive Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, an orange-clad trio once again streaked away to team sprint gold in a frankly ridiculous world record time of 40.949 seconds.

It left Scot Carlin and English team-mates Ed Lowe and Hamish Turnbull with silver hanging around their necks and wondering just how you beat them.

“Listen, that Dutch team is in a league of its own,” the 27-year-old told BBC Sport Scotland. “We came in here hoping for a podium and probably surpassed what we thought we could do.

“The two boys in their first Olympics, first event, stepped up massively and dealt with the pressure and that’s kudos to them.”

As Lowe and Turnbull drank in the scenes afterwards – all medals and media – Carlin looked on like a proud dad. In the tribunes was the Scot’s father and his partner, plus his mother and brother.

After having nobody there to watch in Covid-restricted Tokyo, that made this silver a little more special that his chipped, battered first.

“I’m going to keep this one in better nick,” he said. “It’s really not sunk in yet, but it’s special because you’re celebrating in front of your friends and family.

“It’s almost sinking in now while we’re speaking…”

While silver was a repeat of three years ago, experience doesn’t make it any easier. Even if a 14th Olympic, world and European medal is some sort of balm for the sting of missing out again.

But not one of those 14 bits of metal are the colour Carlin most desires.

The Paisley rider will get another chance in the individual event over the next couple of days, having claimed bronze in Tokyo, but will still have to overcome a man he describes as “probably the best track sprinter of all time”.

Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen has become close to unbeatable in recent years

“There’s still five days of racing and I feel good so we’ll see how it goes,” Carlin added. “I’ve still got my head screwed on and my legs are feeling really good.”