The four Swiss members of the Pursuit Team, Silvan Dillier, Stefan Küng, Frank Pasche, and Théry Shir, will be heading to the finals at the European Track Championships taking place in the Velodrome Suisse in Grenchen.

In the semifinal, the team coached by Daniel Gisiger defeated the French by more than two seconds. Their time of 3:56.791 improves upon the Swiss record, which was achieved at altitude in Aguacalientes, Mexico, by 0.252 seconds. That means that the Swiss time Thursday afternoon bested their time in the qualifying round by over two seconds, and was even faster than the winning time set Wednesday evening by their British opponents.

The British team powered by Bradley Wiggins was content in its semi-final simply to control their opposition, the Russians, and set a time that was more than seven-tenths of a second slower than the Swiss.

For the final tonight, the Velodorme Suisse will be filled to capacity, though the British will still start as the favorites. The Swiss have nothing to lose. By winning the silver medal, they will have reached their ambitious goal, and achieved their best performance at the Euro Championships in their own country.

In the battle for bronze, Denmark and France, both of which remained well under the four minute mark, will face off. Such times are evidence of the quality of the track in Grenchen, thanks to the higher temperatures in the hall and the deep pressure of bad weather, many of the times were between one and two seconds faster than the previous day.

This was true for the women’s races as well. The British women improved their time by four seconds, and overtook the Polish women already after three kilometers. That will likely happen again tonight in their final if their Russian opponents cannot fare better.