British cycling investment pays off

Fourteen riders, seven gold medals, three silvers and three bronzes.

Once the sporting world looked to the Australian Institute of Sport for clues about how to win Olympic medals; today it's the British track cycling team.

Collectively the team did not win as many golds as US swimming sensation Michael Phelps.

But, while Phelps' triumphs were the product of a unique physique and an indomitable will, the British cycling team's success were the product of smart administration.

Just 12 years ago British cycling was in the doldrums.

The British cyclists won just two bronze medals at the Atlanta Olympics - one on the track and one on the road.

Here in Beijing they have so dominated traditional cycling powerhouses Italy, France, Spain and Australia that Bradley Wiggins the winner of two golds declared: "we are just pissing all over everybody to be frank."

The seeds of the team's success were sown in 1999 when British cycling bosses secured annual lotteries funding of 2.5 million pounds for a world class performance plan, a sum that has now grown to 4 million pounds.

The money enabled cycling bosses to pay the country's top prospects to train fulltime, to send them all over the world, to poach coaches from Germany and Australia, to employ psychiatrists and to develop new clothing and bikes - anything that would give the riders an edge, physical or psychological.

Mark Elliot, Bike NZ high performance manager, says the lotteries funding was just the "starting point".

You wouldn't know what they are getting to be honest."

But he says money alone doesn't make cyclists go faster. It is the quality of the spending that counts.

"Clearly they have got a superior programme and they've matched it at all levels right across each discipline which is bloody impressive.

"They've got depth in their sprint programme, they've got depth in their endurance programme and they've got depth in their woman's sprint programme."

However, Elliot says New Zealand, which won two track medals in Beijing, has no cause to feel intimidated.

"What we've learned is we are on a higher, steeper curve of improvement than they are so we know we can match them.

"It's just going to take us a bit more time to develop that. I think what they have done is put a huge resource into the athletes they believe can win as we have.

"We have really put as many resources as little New Zealand can into our track team, and with a young team we believe that's paid off and we will do the same over the next four years.

"London watch out."

- © Fairfax NZ News