Australian athletes intimidated by British opponents? Strewth.

"It's quite daunting racing the British team on British soil," says silver-medal track cyclist Michael Hepburn, describing the wall of noise in the raucous Velodrome as well as the performance of the host nation's riders in Friday's team pursuit final.

The British quartet rode the wave of passionate home support to a gold medal and a world record time of 3 minutes, 51.659 seconds.

The fiercely competitive and proud Aussies could only admire their opponents.

"I don't think we can be too disappointed that we were beaten by the best team ever," Hepburn said Saturday.

—Graham Dunbar_www.twitter.com/gdunbarap

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EDITOR'S NOTE — "Eyes on London" shows you the Olympics through the eyes of Associated Press journalists across the 2012 Olympic city and around the world. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.