Bradley Wiggins won our first gold at the Men's Individual Pursuit and then joined his compatriots Edward Clancy, Geraint Thomas and Paul Manning to bag the Team Pursuit title, setting a new world record beating Australia's record set at the 2004 Olympics. Then Rebecca Romero, rowing silver medallist at the Athens Olympics and who switched to cycling in 2006, won gold in the Women's Individual Pursuit. Her achievement is made greater by the fact she was very late to cycling and is one of very few athletes to have success at different disciplines. Finally, Victoria Pendleton and BMX specialist Shanaze Reade defended their Women's Team Sprint title. So far, so normal - Britain has become so good at track cycling that good performances are now the norm (unlike our efforts in other sports!) and we won seven golds in Mallorca last year.
We narrowly missed out on the Men's Team Sprint, coming second to France by a split second but Rebecca Romero claimed her second gold medal as part of the British Women's Pursuit Team, setting a new world record for good measure - despite not having had any race practice. Chris Hoy's unexpected victory (it was his first time in the event) in the Men's Sprint took Great Britain's gold medal tally to six and made him the first rider to win world titles in the four speed events - the Kilometre, Team Sprint, Keirin and Individual Sprint. Not an easy task, given the different tactics and demands of each event and his Sprint victory is Britain's first since 1954.
Chris Hoy went on to also retain his Men's Keirin crown but not before an exciting event in the Madison. The British pair, Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish, were so closely marked that they were stifled every time they tried to catch up to the three teams that were a lap ahead. To compete for the medals, they would have to regain that lap but found it frustrating when their efforts (usually in conjunction with Germany and New Zealand) were countered, usually by the Spanish team. With 40 laps to go, it looked like Britain would miss out on a medal but the pair made one final attack, pushing so hard that they looked as if they were racing in a Sprint rather than a 200-lap Madison. They not only caught the back-enders but stayed with the pack despite attacks at the front and crossed the line with more points than second-placed Germany (who also caught up the pack in the final stages).
To top it off, Victoria Pendleton once again dominated the Women's Individual Sprint. And dominate she did, making it look easy as she allowed her opponent to lead by several lengths before taking control and bursting past her to claim her second gold and Britain's ninth. Unfortunately, she couldn't add to that total in the Keirin on the final day, having to content herself with a hard-fought silver - she was visibly disappointed and this seems to be one of the few sports in which our athletes expect to win.
The final tally of medals for Britain was:
Individual Sprint - Men's Gold / Women's Gold
Individual Pursuit - Men's Gold / Women's Gold
Team Pursuit - Men's Gold / Women's Gold
Team Sprint - Men's Silver / Women's Gold
Keirin - Men's Gold / Women's Silver
Madison - Gold
We failed to get any medals in the Scratch, Points, Time Trial races, either Men's or Women's, or in the Omnium (the Pentathlon of track cycling) but we have some prospects for the future. We won seven of the ten track events in the Olympics but there's still room for improvement - let's make it a clean sweep in Beijing!
Now is the time to recognise Britain's talent, rather than hiding their successes behind the failures of our cricket and football teams (I would add rugby but we're rather good at that!). Athletes have been given honours for their achievements, why not the same for Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton et al? I expect to see at least one of them shortlisted for this year's BBC Sports Personality award... although it's certain to go to Lewis Hamilton.
Victoria Pendleton - who says cyclists aren't glamourous?
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