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How many more for the Brits?

By VeloNews.Com
Published: Aug. 16, 2008
Hoy celebrates his kierin win
Hoy celebrates his kierin win
Photo: Agence France Presse

With three golds, a silver and a two bronzes through four events on the Laoshan Velodrome, Great Britain is living up to its pre-Olympics hype as the track dominator.

So far it hasn’t been a benevolent ruler.

Day Two saw Chris Hoy take a crushing victory in the men’s keirin (with Ross Edgar in silver), just 24 hours after the Brits mowed their way to gold in the Team Sprint.

Bradley Wiggins showed no mercy in keeping his Olympic champion crown in the men’s individual pursuit and became the first cyclist to repeat as pursuit champion, something not even his mentor Chris Boardman managed to do.

Chris Newton even managed to carve out a bronze in a wide-open, free-for-all in the men’s points race. And Steven Burke won bronze in the men's individual pursuit.

With three days left to go in Olympic track, the question begs: How many more medals for the Brits on the track?

The answer is, quite a few more.

Sunday’s lone medal event is the women’s individual pursuit. Two Brits — Rebecca Romero and Wendy Houvenaghle — line up in the gold-medal round. Following Sarah Hammer’s meltdown in qualifying, add two more medals in the Brits’ tally.

Wiggins is back in the saddle for Monday’s men’s team pursuit (with qualifying Sunday) in what’s expected to be another gold-medal coronation parade for the new Pax Britannia.

Track racing concludes Tuesday with the men’s Madison, where Wiggins will team up with world championship partner Mark Cavendish. The pair has already been called the “ideal” duo by several wary rivals.

With Wiggins drilling it in the transition laps and Cavendish uncorking his famous cannonballs in the sprints, it’s hard to imagine anyone coming close.

Then there’s the women’s and men’s sprints. Victoria Pendleton and Hoy are favorites to keep the gold train a rollin’.

It’s only in the women’s points race on Monday that Britain doesn’t have a convincing chance for a medal, and that’s only because of the unpredictable nature of the race. Romero will be lining up, so maybe Great Britain will do a medals sweep of sorts after all.

So far, they’ve scored a medal in every track event. And from the looks of it, they could pull it off.

That would be 12 medals in 10 events across men’s and women’s competition.

Great Britain’s team manager Dave Brailsford got it wrong when he called it the “greatest British team ever.”

He was being far too modest — a good British trait, mind you. What he might need to do is drop the “British,” and then he’ll get it right.