The French successfully defended their team sprint world title in Poland at the end of the first day, beating the British team by just over a quarter of a second.
It would have been sweet revenge for the French who were so comprehensively beaten in Beijing, but it was also a solid performance by Great Britain who are now someway from their peak but still managing to compete at the highest level.
The French stopped the clock at 43.510 seconds with Crampton crossing the line in 43.869. The Brit had let a gap open between him and Jason Kenny by the end of the first lap, but had pegged it back by the time Kenny swung up.
Kenny had ridden the fastest split of the evening's final, but Crampton was still behind with a lap to go. France's victory was finally sealed as Mickael Bourgain extended his lead over the final 250 metres.
Of all three British riders Crampton had the toughest job. Not only did he join two Olympic champions, he was replacing Sir Chris Hoy in the wake of the Scot's injury
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This year was the first time that a British trio had competed without Sir Chris since 1996, but even without the talismanic Scot they extended their run of consecutive podiums positions to 11.
Staff said: "I'm sure by the end of the week we'll have four or five gold medals, but it's disappointing we didn't bring one home. It's been really hard since the Olympics, pretty intense, and we've all been training hard. It just didn't quite happen tonight."
Crampton added: "The ride in qualifying was great, but we didn't do quite enough in the final. But I've got a silver medal and I'm pretty happy with that."
QUALIFYING ROUND
The rivalry between Great Britain and France's team sprint riders continues, after the nations qualified for the gold medal final.
Great Britain's trio of Jamie Staff, Jason Kenny and Matt Crampton, who replaced the injured Sir Chris Hoy, set a fine time of 43.738, only to see Gregory Bauge, Michael D'Almeida and Kevin Sireau sneak inside it.
Britain won gold at the Olympic Games in Beijing last summer, and the French were victorious in Manchester a year ago.
Results: Men's team sprint
1 France 43.510
2 Great Britain 43.869
3 Germany 43.912
4 Australia 43.986
Qualifying round
1 France 43.614seconds
2 Great Britain 43.738
3 Germany 43.911
4 Australia 44.115
5 Poland 44.865
6 Malaysia 44.996
7 Netherlands 44.999
8 Japan 45.139
9 China 45.201
10 Russia 45.513
11 Ukraine 45.713
12 Spain 45.771
13 Greece 46.578
14 Czech Republic 46.594
15 Colombia 46.722
Jamie Staff leads the GB team sprinters
Staff peels off leaving Kenny and Crampton
The winning French trio
Team sprint podium: Great Britain, France, Germany
Editor of Cycling Weekly magazine, Simon has been working at the title since 2001. He fell in love with cycling 1989 when watching the Tour de France on Channel 4, started racing in 1995 and in 2000 he spent one season racing in Belgium. During his time at CW (and Cycle Sport magazine) he has written product reviews, fitness features, pro interviews, race coverage and news. He has covered the Tour de France more times than he can remember along with two Olympic Games and many other international and UK domestic races. He became the 130-year-old magazine's 13th editor in 2015.
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