Track cyclists will be hoping for medal success today after Bradley Wiggins' gold win in the time trial.

In all likelihood, however prolific they are it will be a step back from Beijing four years ago where they blazed a trail with seven golds, three silvers and two bronzes.

Cycling governing body the UCI put paid to a repeat of that by introducing the one-rider-per-nation-per-event rule, meaning that Britain will not be quite so medal rich in the table after events at the Velodrome.

But the team showed at the World Championships in Melbourne earlier this year that they are once again top dog in the sport.

Partly because of that UCI ruling and Jason Kennys fine form at both the worlds and in training since, Sir Chris Hoy has been denied the chance of completing the fairytale of defending all three Olympic titles.

Hoy still has two golds on the line, starting with todays team sprint although he, Kenny and the teenager Philip Hindes will have needed to have taken a huge step forward in the intervening four months since their disqualification at the worlds to dream of winning gold here.

Hoy has accepted the decision over the British individual sprint spot with good grace, going as far as saying that British Cycling had made the right choice. He even pointed out his tussle with Kenny could aid his team sprint and keirin hopes having inspired me to work harder.

Id love to be going for three events but now I can only do two, he said.

The other thing to have inspired him in recent days was the Tour de France victory of former track team-mate Wiggins, something Hoy, caught up in the emotion of it all, perhaps overdramatised by calling the greatest achievement of any British sportsman ever.

The person hoping to set Hoy on the road to glory is 19-year-old Hindes, a German-born rider with a British father who switched to the Team GB in 2010. A potentially awkward plastic Brit debate has been neatly swatted away by Hindes himself, who cannot understand the fuss and points out I feel British without any irony as he delivers the words in a German accent.

Continued here:
Chris Hoy and Team GB expected to follow Bradley Wiggins' medal success