Team GB cyclists need to show Olympic form at world championships

The final world championships before the Olympic Games is the point when reality, good or bad, hits home for Britain’s track cyclists, and the withdrawal of the governing body’s main sponsor HSBC the day before the event began is a bigger reality check than most. The pressure is always felt in the final major competition before the climax of the Olympic cycle – it has been that way all through British Cycling’s lottery‑funded glory years – but this week in Berlin it will be just that little bit more acute.

The Olympic runes will be acutely read as per usual, but the waters will be muddied because in the past four years the pool of nations competing at the highest level appears to have widened, times have plummeted in the two team pursuits, while from a British perspective the medal bankers such as the men’s and women’s team pursuit quartets have not been at their levels of previous years.

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The past two Olympic cycles show a definite pattern: GB tread water at world championships in non‑Olympic years, picking up one or two gold medals and usually finishing between fourth and sixth. The 2013 triumph in Minsk, with five golds and a finish atop the medal table, now looks like an aberration. What cannot be argued is at this point in the Olympic cycle there is always a significant upturn in the team’s fortunes, even if not on the scale of Manchester in 2008, with nine gold medals of a possible 18.

The room for improvement is obvious: last year in Pruskow, Poland, the team’s haul of only four medals was relatively low, with no victories in any Olympic events – Elinor Barker’s women’s scratch gold was the highlight – even if it was not on the scale of the catastrophe in Paris in 2015. As ever, it is time for the team’s senior members to step up.

Jason Kenny requires one more to match Sir Chris Hoy as Britain’s most prolific gold medallist, but he has enjoyed a typically restrained time between Games, including a year out of the sport which led to speculation over his retirement at one point; he will be closely watched in the sprint events – where the Dutch have raised the bar since Rio – as this point in the cycle is when he usually emerges from hibernation. His wife, Laura, is getting over a shoulder fracture from last month, and now has her status as the team’s go-to omnium rider threatened by the Scot Katie Archibald.

Another mainstay is the men’s team pursuit rider Ed Clancy, now almost 35 with a gold medal‑winning record at the discipline that goes back to 2005. Clancy’s record now includes a further four world pursuit titles and three Olympic golds. “He’s the most successful rider in the history of the event,” the men’s endurance coach, Iain Dyer, said. “He’s going for a fourth Olympic gold in a row, he’s highly motivated and we’d all like to be part of that success.”

The championships open on Wednesday with the men’s and women’s team pursuits, both of which are usually Team GB’s strongest suits. The hope is both deliver on the first evening, creating useful momentum for the next four days, but that task looks more complicated than in the past. The men’s event used to be a straightforward match between Britain and Australia, but those days are gone.

“There is no expectation that GB and Australia will be the top two teams,” said Dyer. “Italy and Denmark have been competitive through the cycle and there are other teams on that terrain – New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland.” That new competitiveness and a fresh focus on aerodynamics have raised the standard. “If you look back at Rio there were teams qualifying outside 4min [for 4,000m] – that wouldn’t win you the junior worlds this year.”

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Another perennial question at this point is how much of their aerodynamic kit the various teams have thrown into the winter, when qualifying for the world championships and Olympics is at stake, and how much is being held back. Dyer said it is hard to tell precisely where his team sit, because “we’ve deployed very little as yet, so what the package brings has yet to be realised”.

He added: “We’ve seen more from other nations this winter that might have been kept in the dark in the past. They’ve gone big on [aerodynamic] socks and skinsuits to get a lift – it’s hard to say how that colours things but when everyone is suited and booted we will find out.”

While the men’s quartet won the world title in the Netherlands in 2018, the GB women have been unable to replicate the dominant form they showed between London and Rio, without a world title since then. But Barker, another relative veteran, said they are feeling no more pressure than usual in spite of the strong showings from their old rival Australia – the gold medallists last year – the USA and New Zealand. “We are desperate to win every single race, we are aware of it, but winning runs always come to an end. There is never any room for complacency.”