COPENHAGEN, March 24, 2010 (AFP) – World sprint champion Gregory Bauge selflessly blamed himself on Wednesday as France lost their coveted team sprint crown to Germany here at the world track cycling championships.

Germany, who last won the three-lap power event at world level in 2003, clocked a winning time of 43.433sec to leave France, the champions since 2006, with the silver medal.

Olympic champions Britain claimed the bronze medal after outperforming China in a time of 43.590.

France had seemed set for a fifth successive gold after they dominated qualifying in a superb time of 43.37.

However in the final the trio of Bauge, Kevin Sireau and Michael d’Almeida were left trailing by 0.197sec on the first lap and 0.163 on the second before finishing in second place at 0.2 behind.

A shoulder injury suffered by Bauge at the World Cup in Beijing in January meant that for six weeks he has been unable to work on his starts as normal.

But that setback did not help ease the pain of losing their crown.

“I’m disappointed,” said the Frenchman, who believes that trailing his opposing start man Robert Forstemann was a crucial factor.

“I didn’t do the fastest first lap, and that penalized us – Kevin (Sireau) took over well and Michael (d’Almeida) had a great finish.”

As reigning world keirin champion Germany’s Maximilian Levy had been forced to hand back his rainbow jersey to officials ahead of the start of Thursday’s tournament.

And he admitted he did not expect to be wearing another quite so soon.

“I was wearing the keirin world champion’s jersey for the last time today and I thought to myself, that’s it I’ll never wear a rainbow jersey again,” he told AFP.

“Now just five hours later I’ve got another, it’s just amazing.

“This morning we thought we had a chance of bronze, and after qualifying we thought we might get silver. And now we’ve got the gold!”

Sir Chris Hoy, who won team sprint, sprint and keirin gold at the 2008 Olympics, was left to anchor a team bereft of Jamie Staff, whose unrivaled power gave them a crucial start on their way to triumph in Beijing.

However despite having to settle for bronze after some “technical slips” in their two rides, the 33-year-old Scot was positive about the influence of stand-in start man Jason Kenny.

Hoy admitted they had got their tactics slightly wrong over their two rides, but said they wouldn’t be using that as an excuse against the “awesome” German and French teams.

“Technically we didn’t do as well as we should have done but the positive thing is we’ve found someone who could be capable of getting close to Jamie’s start,” said Hoy.

“But the French and Germans were pretty awesome tonight, and they’ve given us something to think about for the next two years.”

Hoy, who is scheduled to race in Thursday’s keirin tournament, where he will likely come up against Levy, added: “Every colour of medal is hard to fight for, and we can be proud of our achievements tonight.”