Superb Sir Chris Hoy leads gold rush

Published on Monday 2 November 2009 22:00

GREAT Britain demonstrated their increasing readiness for the London Olympic Games with a sensational show of superiority at the Track World Cup in Manchester.

The team, and Sir Chris Hoy in particular, proved their thirst for glory remains undiminished with 11 golds from 18 events – three from three for Hoy – in addition to four silvers and one bronze at the Manchester Velodrome.

Coming on the weekend London celebrated 1,000 days to go until the Games and seven months after a disappointing, by Britain's standards, World Championships in Poland – where two gold, four silver and three bronze medals were won – it was an emphatic flexing of the muscles in the opening international meet of the season.

British Cycling performance director Dave Brailsford declared the team were "back where we belong". He said: "We said before the weekend it was about the hunger, the attention to detail, the fight, getting the processes right – the results look after themselves and that's pretty much what happened. We're not ready to be written off yet."

Hoy won the keirin, sprint and team sprint, alongside Jamie Staff and Ross Edgar, with Victoria Pendleton, Chris Newton, Lizzie Armitstead, Geraint Thomas and Wendy Houvenaghel the other individual champions and both pursuit squads triumphing. In addition, Matthew Crampton triumphed in the JKA Invitation Keirin.

Four-time Olympic champion Hoy was competing in his first international competition since suffering a hip injury which ruled him out of March's World Championships in Poland. He was back to his irrepressible best, setting a flying 200 metres track record of 9.869 seconds in qualification for the sprint, while, in the team sprint, he clocked the fastest final lap ever in anchoring the Team Sky+HD squad to victory over a young British trio.

"He's going as well as I've ever seen him going," said Brailsford. "Chris could be forgiven for losing a little bit of desire, but he leads the way in that respect; he wants it more than anybody still, he trains as hard as anybody and he is everything you want an elite athlete to be."

The 33-year-old from Edinburgh believes he is still getting better. "I didn't expect to be going this well," said Hoy. "I think my form is as good as Beijing just now, but I also feel as though there's more to come."

France's big hitters, including world sprint champion Gregory Bauge, were absent from the opening World Cup event of the season, and Hoy, having successfully negotiated his qualification for Copenhagen, is optimistic.

"It's a good sign. It's a sign that they're maybe wanting to meet us on neutral territory and maybe they just didn't want to give us the psychological advantage of getting one over on them," said Hoy. "Hopefully that will give them a little fright and we'll look forward to racing them at the World Championships."

Britain's dominant display was sealed by the team pursuit squads' phenomenal displays on day three. The men's quartet of Ed Clancy, Thomas, Steven Burke and Andy Tennant clocked a track record three minutes 54.395 seconds – second only to the world record set by Clancy, Thomas, Paul Manning and Bradley Wiggins in winning gold in Beijing.

The women's trio of Armitstead, Joanna Rowsell and Houvenaghel went one better, breaking the world record with a time of 3mins 21.875secs. It was a stunning performance from the women's squad, with the event poised to be included in the London Games in 2012 in changes proposed by cycling's world governing body, the UCI.

The individual pursuits are set to be removed from the programme, to the detriment of Britain, who boast the reigning Olympic champions in Wiggins and Rebecca Romero.

Both were absent in Manchester – Wiggins focusing on the road after his fourth-placed finish in the Tour de France; Romero considering a switch to the road time-trial with the Olympic programme changes imminent – but Britain still triumphed.

Houvenaghel cruised the women's event, clocking 3:30.800 in qualification before catching her opponent in the final. Thomas was even more dominant, qualifying in 4:15.015 – the quickest time since the 'Superman' position adopted by Chris Boardman was banned – before stopping as he caught Belgium's Dominique Cornu in the final, despite being on course for a quicker time.

GB GOLDS

&#149 Women's Sprint: Victoria Pendleton

&#149 Men's Sprint: Sir Chris Hoy

&#149 Men's Team Sprint: Hoy, Ross Edgar, Jamie Staff

&#149 Men's Keirin: Hoy

&#149 Men's Individual Pursuit: Geraint Thomas

&#149 Men's team pursuit: Thomas, Steve Burke, Ed Clancy, Andy Tennant (Ben Swift, qualifying)

&#149 Men's Points race: Chris Newton

&#149 Women's Individual Pursuit: Wendy Houvenaghel

&#149 Women's Points race: Lizzie Armitstead

&#149 Women's Team Pursuit: Armitstead, Houvenaghel, Joanna Rowsell

&#149 JKA Invitation Keirin: Matthew Crampton