A stunning equipment failure has sent Australian track cyclist Alex Porter face-planting into the Izu Velodrome track at 65km/h.
Porter showed outstanding courage to back up half an hour later in the men's team pursuit re-start, nursing nasty wounds on his chin and arm.
But the crash eventually cruelled Australia's gold medal hopes on Monday's opening day of Olympic track cycling and the best they can hope for now is a consolation bronze medal.
While the Australians showed plenty of fight in the re-start, it is also inexplicable that Porter's handlebars and stem could separate from his bike frame.
Each of the specialist team pursuit bikes is worth around $10,000.
Seven Network commentators Anna Meares and Scott McGrory, who won Olympic gold in track cycling, could not recall a similar accident.
"We're not too sure, exactly, what happened - there was obviously something wrong with the bars," said Australian cycling team boss Simon Jones.
"When you land on your face at 65km/h and you've got half an hour to do that again, it's absolutely amazing.
"Talk about Australian fighting spirit - I'm almost speechless."
It was a brutal opening sessions for the Australians, with the women's team pursuiters finishing second-last in their qualifying.
Their best result now is also a bronze medal, but the women are well off the pace.
There is little doubt that without Porter's shock accident, Australia would have qualified among the top four nations and been in the gold medal hunt.
To add insult to injury, arch-rivals Great Britain ended up denying them fourth place.
The Australians were just over a kilometre into their 4000m ride when Porter, riding at the rear of their four-man formation, suddenly hit the deck.
It had echoes of the Rio Games, when Rohan Dennis was on his way to a medal in the road time trial when a handlebar extension snapped.
He did not crash, but his bike change relegated Dennis to fifth place.
Another consolation for Australia on Monday night is that Porter was at the rear of their four-rider paceline when he went down.
If had been further up the paceline, anyone behind him also would have crashed.
He was fuming as he walked back to the Australian team pits.
Porter's friction burns from the wooden track mean he will have a tough night's sleep and Luke Plapp is the team reserve for Tuesday's round of racing.
But Jones said Porter was "really, really lucky" not to suffer more serious injuries.
"He slid on his face - he's not quite as pretty as he was before," Jones said.
Australia will ride off against slowest qualifiers Switzerland on Tuesday and must post a time fast enough to reach Wednesday's bronze medal ride.
Porter, Kelland O'Brien, Sam Welsford and Leigh Howard clocked three minutes 48.448 seconds in the re-start to be fifth-fastest, just behind Great Britain's 3:47.507.
World champions Denmark broke the Olympic record to qualifying fastest with 3:45.014.
"We did a pretty good time considering we crashed at a really quick pace and the lads were on really good form," Jones said.
"We still have the bronze ... that's the key thing.
"They did an amazing time there, it's really incredible."
Germany clocked 4:07.307 in women's team pursuit qualifying to break the 4:10.236 world record.
The Australian combination of Georgia Baker, Annette Edmondson, Ashlee Ankudinoff and Alexandra Manly rode 4:13:571 and they face New Zealand in round one, with their medals also decided on Tuesday.
Stephanie Morton's retirement means Australia did not enter the women's team sprint, where China beat fastest qualifiers Germany for the gold medal and the Netherlands won bronze.