They’ve raised the bar…
Others will surely strive to match and better the BC program, but even if another country started to really throw many at it now it’s asking a hell of a lot to come up to the British mark in one Olympic cycle – you’d expect an up and coming nation to have shown something on the track at Beijing.
The Aussies were in there pomp at Athens but the GB team still managed to bag some big wins. Nobody really showed in Beijing like that, plus any contenders would surely need to be coming good at junior level? I’m no expert but it seems to me that BC’s juniors look as awesome as the seniors and that they’ve established something of a production line of talent.
Whatever I’m sure no-one will give up, they will close the gap and BC will probably need that extra dosh just to maintain the level of success they enjoyed in Beijing – hopefully that won’t be classed as a relative failure. The big worry then would what happens after London… hopefully cycling will be so entrenched in the national sporting consciousness that there will be no question of cutting its funding.
Hopefully.