Our track team are flying – I have faith they will get it right
Never mind all this talk of a ‘fourth-place curse’ for Team GB. I do not have time for any of that. I am supremely confident that our track cyclists are going to get it right over the next few days.
Everything I am hearing suggests the GB team are flying in training and you look around that squad and there are winners everywhere. From Sir Bradley Wiggins to Laura Trott to Mark Cavendish. I am thinking positively. Everyone asks whether the fallout from Shane Sutton’s resignation will have an effect but I do not think so.
Elite athletes are inherently self-centred creatures. They tend not to look outside of their own particular bubble, even to other disciplines, and Shane had already moved ‘upstairs’ anyway following Sir Dave Brailsford’s departure (actually British Cycling’s management sit deep in the bowels of the Manchester velodrome). He had very little day-to-day involvement in the coaching. So I do not think the riders’ lives will have changed all that much.
I think it would not be a concern and is unlikely to be used as an excuse in terms of performance at this Olympic Games.
My views on Shane are well known and do not particularly need airing again. I believe that change can be good. I believe there have been issues that needed addressing, which will hopefully be tackled with the Independent Review.
Now is the time to put all of that to bed. Tensions are an inevitable part of the build-up to such an important competition. That is why you get the odd athlete making a remark in the press. The pressure is on and the athletes are feeling it right now. That is fine, as long as they can channel that pressure into positive performances. I think they can.
First up tonight is the men’s team sprint and a lot of the pressure will fall on Callum Skinner’s shoulders. We know that Phil Hindes and Jason Kenny at man one and man two are probably the best in the world. They are the same combination from the gold medal-winning team at London 2012 and they have only got faster. The big question is whether Skinner can ‘get on’ at man three. By which I mean, stay on the wheel of Kenny for the first two laps and still have enough in the tank to produce an explosive third. Even for Sir Chris Hoy it was not easy. I know Callum is capable of a huge performance. A lot of the expertise at British Cycling is focused on peaking when it matters.
The skinsuits, the bikes, the psychology, all the R&D. Our guys will be the best-prepared team out there, I truly believe that.
Unfortunately we did not qualify a women’s sprint team. Again, my views are well known on Jess Varnish. It breaks my heart that she is not here as I believe she is a serious talent and had so much more to give. Her fifth place with Katy Marchant at the worlds in London in March showed what they were capable of, and the team would only have got faster.
Becky James, who was still coming back from a career-threatening injury at that point, would probably have been on the back by the time they got out here and I think they would have been well capable of a medal.
Becky and Katy will just have to get them in the individual events, that’s all. Becky, in particular, has a great chance. We know from her performance at the world championships in Minsk in 2013, when she won those two golds, that the talent is there. Either sprint or keirin. When you get to the Olympics anything can happen. If you get a decent draw, you are right there. You need a bit of luck, and a lot of self-belief.
The men’s and women’s team pursuits are both good goldmedal shouts, as are Cavendish and Trott individually in the omnium events.
We know that the rest of the world have raised their games since 2012, but this is what we do.
I have belief that when push comes to shove we will keep our noses in front.
Do not, though, expect eight gold medals from the cyclists this time around. That level of success is perhaps unsustainable. Just the five will do here. Plus a couple of silvers or bronzes. I have faith.