Anything short of a gold medal will leave Leigh Hoffman and his fellow Australian team sprint riders “devastated”.

It’s a big call, given Australia’s only Olympic medal in the event was bronze when the high-speed relay made its debut at Sydney.

Since then, there’s been a history of agonising podium near-misses for the men.

But Australia’s gold medal at the 2022 world championships and silver behind the Dutch last year have raised expectations dramatically.

“I don’t really like to talk about ‘chances’, per se – we’re obviously going to aim for gold,” Hoffman said.

“There’s no point in aiming for anything else, so I wouldn’t say it’s that chance to win, it’s our determination to win and not settle for anything else.

“Even if we won a silver medal, we’d still be pretty devastated, even though it would be our best result since (2000).

“It’s always in the back of our mind – gold, gold, gold.”

Hoffman has the crucial starter’s role, where he tears out of the gate and sets the tempo on the opening lap.

He then peels off and Matthew Richardson takes over for the second lap, with Matthew Glaetzer charging to the finish on his own on lap three.

It’s a highly technical event, demanding supreme timing in the two changeovers and careful thought about tactics.

For example, as counter-intuitive as it sounds, Hoffman might intentionally ride slightly slower in qualifying to help ensure Glaetzer finishes as strongly as possible, given it’s the third man’s time that counts.

It comes down to what sort of gear ratio Hoffman will use on his specialist track bike.

“If I was to be on my smallest gear possible and go out like a bat out of hell, there’s a pretty high chance the team would be lagging behind, which is not the quickest-possible time,” Hoffman said.

“The strategy with that, still basically the way I ride on any gear, it’s still 100 per cent. There’s no half-arsing.

“That bigger gear should slow down the first half of the lap and then it carries the team through.

“It’s definitely a lot of trust. I’m just going to go as quickly as possible and I have no idea what’s going on behind me, as well.”

Hoffman was the team sprint reserve at the last Olympics – Tom Cornish is the unlucky rider of the powerful Australian sprint group to miss out this time.

As much as it hurt not to make the final cut for Tokyo, Hoffman said it proved a blessing.

“I technically have an Olympics under my belt, just a mock-up one,” he said.

“It definitely brings me some confidence and lays off a bit of nervousness and pressure.

“With hindsight, everything happens for a reason and it’s worked out perfectly for me.”