OUT to the west of Beijing, the Laoshan velodrome looks like a flying saucer that has burst through the smog and touched down in the Shijingshan suburb.
That polished disc of a roof should filter some of the pollution afflicting those forced to compete in the not-so-fresh air. There will be no shortage of sweat spilled onto its polished boards though, with the world looking to dent the confident supr
emacy of the globe's strongest track-cycling team, which just happens to be Great Britain. A fact that sticks in the craw of the Australians.
If the sporadic athletic triumphs from the likes of Kelly Holmes have dominated Olympic headlines, when it comes to sustained team success for Great Britain at recent Olympiads, we are usually talking boats and bikes. The nicely spoken guys and gals of the sailing and rowing team remain relatively unknown, basking in the brief spotlight every four years before getting back to their punishing masochistic training schedules.
The cyclists have the opportunity to make their names more lasting memories. Two days into the Olympics, it was Nicole Cooke who secured Britain's first medal, a gold at that, in a particularly arduous road race. Her triumph was anything but a surprise, instead merely meeting the exalted expectations of the present generation of cyclists.
Cooke is not the only one in danger of becoming a celebrity. This year's world championships in Manchester underlined the mesmerising strength in depth of the British squad.
The danger is that the phenomenal world championships in March with its nine gold medals may set a standard that is impossible to emulate. Such is the strength of character in this group that they welcome the pressure being increased, glory in tougher challenges.
Victoria Pendleton, probably the most recognisable member of the team thanks to those "artistic" photo sessions, fell just short of perfection in Manchester, winning individual and team sprint gold, but managing only silver in the keirin. It leaves room for improvement in Beijing, a brief leap to household name status. Rebecca Romero, chasing gold in the individual and team pursuit, has a unique opportunity to compare the relative levels of fame between boats and bikes. Having won a silver in Athens in the women's quadruple sculls, she has a chance to become the first female to win Olympic medals in different sports.
Much of the British strength derives from a team spirit and technical expertise developed over several years. They also have two of the most formidable individuals on the track in Bradley Wiggins and Edinburgh's Chris Hoy.
Wiggins was peerless in Manchester winning gold in the individual and team pursuit, and the bizarre choreographed mayhem that is the madison. In Athens he won gold, silver and bronze.
There's a case that Wiggins is the most impressive athlete in the entire Great Britain team, in terms of strength, resilience and explosive speed. Hoy would also be a candidate for that accolade.
His Manchester heroics, with two golds and a silver, might be judged as even more impressive than Wiggins', in that his speciality, the kilometre sprint, is no longer an Olympic event.
His Athens gold in that event, in which he had to set a record time in the final run to secure gold, was unforgettable. Hoy declined to rest on those laurels though, and partly reinvented himself. In Beijing he goes for the individual and team sprint and has been setting personal bests in training, including breaking the hallowed ten-second barrier for 200 metres. He has also won the last two world championships at the keirin.
Off the track, Hoy is a thoughtful and interesting observer of his sport. On it, he is capable of awe-inspiring and super-human feats. On Friday in the Laoshan velodrome, he and his colleagues have the capacity to achieve what few British athletes ever manage: to make the Australians quail.
The full article contains 661 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
