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CALLUM SKINNER silenced his doubters in sensational style last night as the Scot secured gold for Great Britain in the men’s team sprint in the Olympic velodrome.
He had been perceived as the weak link but didn’t let team-mates Jason Kenny and Phil Hindes down in a sensational finish in the final against New Zealand.
Their greatest challenge had been replacing Sir Chris Hoy in a bid to win a third straight Olympic title.
Even as recently as the world championships in March, the task had appeared beyond the talents of Skinner. Ranked after Hindes and Kenny, man one and man two, the British trio dropped to sixth come the end of Skinner’s lap.
Out of 14 riders on man three Skinner had ranked 10th.
But in the last month or so there have been significant signs of improvement in the Scot, so much so that Hoy — here last night — thought the team capable of beating favourites New Zealand. And so it proved.
Opening with an Olympic record that bettered the mark set by the Hoy-led trio to the London Games in 2012 was quite a statement.
Then it was left to the team to deliver in the final, with Skinner leading them home.
After the bitter disappointment on Rio’s roads, British Cycling appeared to be very much back on track last night, with the women’s team pursuit squad setting a world record in qualifying.
Controversy has too often been British Cycling’s companion these past few months and even in last night’s first session, there appeared to be a bizarre incident involving Sir Bradley Wiggins and some race officials. Wiggins appeared to respond with an offensive gesture.
But reports from the pre-Olympics training camp in Newport suggest the riders are coming into form at exactly the right time, with at least three unofficial world records set.
And here in their opening qualifying ride Laura Trott, Joanna Roswell-Shand, Elinor Barker and Scot Katie Archibald delivered.
An American team sporting bikes with chainsets on the left-hand side will still take some beating, given they were only a second adrift after actually going out quicker than Team GB.
But the sight of the British quartet bettering the world best mark of Australia, crossing the line in 4mins.13.260 lifted British spirits and demonstrated that this track is not half as slow as many feared.
It will be some story if the British women do succeed when earlier this year their preparation was disrupted by serious knee and elbow injuries sustained by Archibald in a motorcycle accident that left her own team-mates less than impressed.
In the Scot’s absence the pursuit squad encountered problems at the world championships in London, even with Trott, the best poundfor-pound rider in women’s track cycling, in fine form.
In qualifying they were ranked a disappointing fifth, even though they did recover from that setback to finish with a bronze in a time that was quick enough to win the gold medal race.
In London they covered the 4km in 4.16.540.
Here, with Archibald back, they were significantly faster and now meet Canada in the first round tomorrow before a probable final with the Americans later in the day.
This was a big moment for this elite Olympic squad; a day of judgment after what has been a difficult few months.
They lost their leader, and for many their mentor, when Shane Sutton resigned amid a storm of controversy in April.
And they faced some difficult questions about the culture within the elite squad.
At the same time Tony Purnell and his team of engineers were frantically developing a state-ofthe-art new bike.
Purnell, an engineering professor at Cambridge as well as an aerodynamics expert with a background in Formula One, tapped into the finest minds in the country to deliver the best possible package.
Outside the velodrome, a few hours before racing began here last night, Purnell admitted to being a little nervous.
Ultimately it comes down to the riders, but British Cycling’s head of research and innovation wanted to see, when compared to their competitors, that Team GB at least had a technical edge; the quickest bikes as well as secretly-developed clothing that it has been said can make more than three seconds difference over 4km.
Everything seemed to be working well even if some of the British riders have opted to use the bikes they road in London rather than the new Cervelo racing machines.
The earlier issue with Wiggins may nevertheless take some explaining.
It seemed to be an issue with his bike measurements in relation to his own measurements.
There are specific regulations that have to be adhered to with regard to the length of aerobars and they apply to riders over 1.9m.
Wiggins therefore had to prove that he was indeed 6ft 3in, and may well have taken exception to all the fuss so close to the first qualifying round in the men’s team pursuit by throwing something of a strop.
Mark Cavendish did say Wiggins was ‘super stressed’ because he ‘wants to be the hero’, and here perhaps was the proof.
Unless, of course, it was directed elsewhere. Perhaps photographers.
This is nevertheless a big moment for the 36-year-old, Great Britain’s first Tour de France winner knowing that he might just become his country’s greatest Olympian too if he can win a fifth gold medal and an eighth in total.