Brits rule, OK?

[pmsc111]

After dominating track cycling in a way even the DDR could never do, looks like the British team are showing their human afterall by having a bit of a post Olympic letdown. They are still the team to beat but after 4 races and no golds you at least get to hear a different national anthem from time to time.

 

[Greg Johnson]

After dominating track cycling in a way even the DDR could never do, looks like the British team are showing their human afterall by having a bit of a post Olympic letdown. They are still the team to beat but after 4 races and no golds you at least get to hear a different national anthem from time to time.

Good, isn't it? Good to see young Cameron Meyer holding down the Aussie Fort.

Sadly, I don't think it's truely indicative of the situation. We're three and a bit years away from the next Olympics - the Poms don't need to perform yet and I'm sure they could have washed the floor at this event had they desired to.

With that said I don't think anyone stood a chance in the women's 500 TT. Damn, that's one fast Lithuanian.

Cheers
Greg Johnson

 

[LugHugger]

You're right, Greg. This is a development year for the UK track squad and the only year in the four year Olympic cycle when Dave Brailsford can afford to experiment with the make-up of the teams and blood the youngsters.

Having said that, and having been at Manchester last year, it was great seeing Cameron Meyer continuing his emergence after some great rides at the TDU. He's definitely going places fast.

 

[Gruffydd]

How about that new kid, Taylor Phinney? It appears he set a new record for the 4K in the US. He is only 19. Gonna get better and better, I think.

 

[lookkg386]

How about that new kid, Taylor Phinney? It appears he set a new record for the 4K in the US. He is only 19. Gonna get better and better, I think.

Amazing ride, Bobridge is a young phenom himself but I think Phinney will win quite easily, but plenty of young guns coming through in track cycling.

 

[bikepure]

Lizzie Amstaids effort to claim silver medal after a hard smash on the boards in the women's scratch race was very impressive.

http://www.bikepure.org

 

[cougie]

I missed Cavs Madison race - is that online anywhere ? Spectacular crash i heard ?

 

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Sadly, I don't think it's truely indicative of the situation.

How can actual performances and medal count not be truely indicative of the situation?

We're three and a bit years away from the next Olympics - the Poms don't need to perform yet and I'm sure they could have washed the floor at this event had they desired to.

I doubt it. Did they have riders in better form available?

Champs don't let the foot off the throat. It was a World Championship after all.

 

[LugHugger]

It's refreshing to see the increased coverage of track in the UK over the last 18 months or so. I can't speak for the local media coverage in Australia and New Zealand but we've been starved of exposure here in the UK for years, even when riders were winning things.

It certainly looks as though the sport is enjoying a certain amount of credibility amongst young riders, witness the emergence of Phinney and Meyer to name just two. It's very difficult to book track time at the indoor velodromes in the UK at the moment and has been since last March. The British Worlds squad was littered with emerging riders who certainly have medal potential in 2012 and let's not forget that Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins or Rebecca Romero did not compete. It's perfectly possible that if they had, the Brits' medal tally would have been close to last year's World/Olympic numbers.

 

[Graham]

How can actual performances and medal count not be truely indicative of the situation?

The first Worlds after an Olympic year have historically been easier pickings. It isn't just Britain, but a lot of the teams didn't send their A-squad. This is particularly true in the men's endurance events which tend to miss the top athletes for the first 2 years in an Olympic cycle as they concentrate on their road careers.

I doubt it. Did they have riders in better form available?

Depends upon what you mean by available. If you mean will be available come the next Olympic Games then we were missing Romero, Wiggins and Thomas. You could also argue that Hoy's crash in Copenhagen only came because he was experimenting with an alternative Kierin strategy, something he wouldn't do in 2011 and 2012. That's 4 riders who would all have increased Britain's medal tally.

Champs don't let the foot off the throat. It was a World Championship after all.

Couldn't disagree more. Champions are never scared to fail; it is the only way that they can get better. Team management in particular has to be brave enough to try out younger talent, otherwise they end up with an old team that they have to completely rebuild from scratch every 10 years or so.

Yes, this was a World Championships but at what other event could Britain genuinely experiment? The World Cup is a joke of a tournament with far too weak an entry list to give the new riders a real test, but that is pretty much the only other international level track tournament. Unfortunately, that means that track world championships need to be sacrificed for the longer picture and the first one in the Olympic cycle is clearly the ideal one to go for.

As someone in the UK press has said, what would Britain have learned had they ridden another sub-3'55 ride with Clancy, Wiggins, Thomas and Burke? The only untested rider in that quartet was Burke and we already know quite a lot about him. Instead, we found that with Clancy, Burke, Kennaugh and Bellis we can ride within a couple of seconds of the fastest non-British team (the Danes did pretty much send an A-squad for this event). That knowledge and the data that we get from it will make us much deeper in the event and will put us in a stronger position for 2012.

Without Romero, we've discovered so much about Armitstead in the team pursuit. She would not have been in that event had Romero not been taking a year out.

British Cycling's funding is not based upon World Championship medals. It is only based upon Olympic medals. Therefore, Brailsford's track job is only about 2012. 2009 needs to be about 2012, not 2009.

I also think that the doom and gloom about our performance is nonsense:

1. We dominated 2007 and 2008 by getting 11 medals. We still got 9 here, only our gold medal count took a hit.

2. We have found one of the most talented female track bunch riders in the world in Armitstead. She has an amazing tactical nous for a 20-year old. In one winter season she has gone from prospect to strong 2012 medallist candidate.

3. I can't believe the nonsense that is being written about Pendleton. That was her first ever 500m TT Worlds medal and was only 0.1 sec outside her PB and British national record. Everyone in the sport knows that this is not her best event as she isn't physically big enough to have the required starting effort. And yet the British media have said that it was a disappointing performance. I'd love to know on what grounds, considering it wasn't an event in Beijing. And her individual sprint will have made her coaches so proud. She has this image of being cute and cuddly, but in the semi and the final she should a steely determination that she's never really had to show before.

4. Cavendish and Kennaugh look better together in the madison than any British pairing I've seen in a long time.

There was only 1 disappointment for me and one warning:

1. Houvenaghel is not a winner. She has now lost ever single Worlds medal ride off race she has ever ridden, despite being the faster of the two qualifiers in many of them. She should have been World Champion this year, the fact she isn't, I think, is symptom of a mental block. That said, if her role is now simply to keep Romero honest and be a great number 2 in the team pursuit, that's no bad place.

2. The Aussies have clearly stepped up the women's team sprint. Britain's performances actually compare very favourably with previous years, but Oz have clearly raised the bar. However, Reade only spent 4 weeks training for this event, so we shouldn't be panicking that the bar has been raised to a level we can't meet. Pendleton is still the fastest in the world over the 2nd lap. How concerned we are will depend upon this becoming an Olympic event or not, though.

Graham.

 

[TrapperJohn]

Did you see what Brailsford did after they came up short last weekend?

Those of you who did not win medals will be riding your bikes back to the UK from Poland.

Wow, not much ambiguity there. If the championships are held in Beijing next year, their motivation for gold will be very high...

 

[Alex Simmons/RST]

The first Worlds after an Olympic year have historically been easier pickings.

Depends upon what you mean by available.

I also think that the doom and gloom about our performance is nonsense:

1. We dominated 2007 and 2008 by getting 11 medals. We still got 9 here, only our gold medal count took a hit.

2. We have found one of the most talented female track bunch riders in the world in Armitstead. She has an amazing tactical nous for a 20-year old. In one winter season she has gone from prospect to strong 2012 medallist candidate.

3. I can't believe the nonsense that is being written about Pendleton.

4. Cavendish and Kennaugh look better together in the madison than any British pairing I've seen in a long time.

There was only 1 disappointment for me and one warning:

1. Houvenaghel is not a winner.

2. The Aussies have clearly stepped up the women's team sprint. Britain's performances actually compare very favourably with previous years, but Oz have clearly raised the bar. However, Reade only spent 4 weeks training for this event, so we shouldn't be panicking that the bar has been raised to a level we can't meet. Pendleton is still the fastest in the world over the 2nd lap. How concerned we are will depend upon this becoming an Olympic event or not, though.

Graham.

Above snipped a lot.

By available I mean did GB have riders in better form available to ride but didn't select them?

I understand Olympic cycles, same thing happens to funding here.

You have said "we" quite a bit, suggesting you have involvement with the GB squad. Care to illuminate?

BTW - I still think they rode a great championships given who went and I can imagine the press having some fun with it in the UK. They are there to sell advertising and don't care how they do it. One shouldn't have high expectations on that front.

How can funding be a constraint given the incredibly large budget team GB has at their disposal, which is probably way more than the entire rest of world combined? Given so much public funding goes into it (rather than say education or health care etc), then joe public likes to see results and it becomes a natural target for the naysayers. Goes with the territory.

And shouldn't then GB lead the way by lifting the standard at World Cups rather than complain the competition isn't good enough? Maybe then others will follow suit. Leaders need to lead.

 

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Did you see what Brailsford did after they came up short last weekend?

Those of you who did not win medals will be riding your bikes back to the UK from Poland.

Wow, not much ambiguity there. If the championships are held in Beijing next year, their motivation for gold will be very high...

er, that was a joke....

 

[Graham]

By available I mean did GB have riders in better form available to ride but didn't select them?

You could argue Wiggins and Thomas, but I think that it misses the point. Rather that this was a season-long plan to give our top names some time off over the winter to complete their post-Olympic duties and either not compete at all (e.g. Romero) or compete with significantly less than ideal preparation (e.g. Pendleton, Kenny). Instead, the winter season was given to up and coming riders to prove what they could do (e.g. Armitstead, Rowsell, Daniell, Kennaugh). You could argue that the only British Olympic champion that had a "normal" winter was Chris Newton.

You have said "we" quite a bit, suggesting you have involvement with the GB squad. Care to illuminate?

.

We, because I'm British and a huge supporter/fan of what Keen started and Brailsford has taken to the next level. Not involved with the squad in any way.

How can funding be a constraint given the incredibly large budget team GB has at their disposal, which is probably way more than the entire rest of world combined? Given so much public funding goes into it (rather than say education or health care etc), then joe public likes to see results and it becomes a natural target for the naysayers. Goes with the territory.

I didn't say that funding was a constraint, although there are other British sports with poorer Olympic records getting more money. However, if you base funding purely upon Olympic medals, you can't complain at poor performances in other tournaments as long as they are justified as part of a bigger picture. Ultimately, if we have a good 2012 (and I'll say now that it will not be as good as 2008), then this will all be forgotten. It's something that I think that BC were prepared for, but it still frustrating as a fan to have the coverage dominated by poor uninformed editorials that have made no attempt to better educate themselves.

I'll ignore what I feel were incredibly poor insights by the CN podcast...

And shouldn't then GB lead the way by lifting the standard at World Cups rather than complain the competition isn't good enough? Maybe then others will follow suit. Leaders need to lead.

I think GB are lifting the standard of track cycling in general and that can be seen at the Worlds. I also think that they are raising the bar at the World Cups by having so many teams represented (GB, Sky +, 100% Me) and it is great to see that France have responded. However, I would argue that if every World Cup had British dominance like we had a Manchester, we would ultimately kill the sport for good. You just have to see at how much Italy have removed themselves from the track over the last 5 years in response to Britain raising the bar.

France, Oz, New Zealand and Denmark are responding to GB's challenge well. We need a few more nations to respond as well, and then we can see about having a more valuable World Cup scene.

Graham.

 

[Graham]

er, that was a joke....

FWIW, Brailsford showed Cycling Weekly a file on his iPod that was dated 3 weeks ago at the end of day 4 on how GB's performances stacked up against his expectations. He was only wrong in 2 places; he expected Crampton to get bronze in the kierin and didn't expect Pendleton's bronze in the 500m TT. That should prove how much we are on track.

I think the biggest mistake was we didn't communicate our expectations well enough to the non-cycling media. That said, even if BC had tried, I'm not sure they would have listened as it wasn't what they wanted to hear. They may even have tried for all I know...

Graham.

 

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Well I think it's great that the performances have brought back some pride and enthusiasm for the sport in the UK.