Just 18 months from Olympics, Shane Sutton puts brave face on GB track worlds performance

Shane Sutton insists Great Britain’s track cyclists are on course to bring home medals at the Rio Olympic Games next year, despite last weekend’s UCI Track World Championships in Paris resulting in the country winning just three medals, none of them gold.

He was speaking after the team came away from this year’s event with silver medals in the men’s and women’s team pursuit – the latter ending a five-year unbeaten run – and in the women’s Omnium, courtesy of Olympic champion Laura Trott.

With a year and a half to go until Rio, not only does it look unlikely that Team GB will repeat its success of Beijing in 2008 and London three years ago, when they took seven of the ten track events, but some are questioning whether the performance in Paris represents the end of an era.

Among those is respected cycling journalist William Fotheringham, who points out in the Guardian that in the world championships at a similar stage before the Beijing and London Olympics, the country won 11 and nine medals, respectively.

He adds that this is the first time Great Britain has missed out on world championship gold since 2001.

But Sutton, who has just completed a year as British Cycling’s technical director, insists that it is too soon to write off Team GB’s chances at Rio and that the true measure of where the team is at will come when London hosts next year’s world championships.

Quoted on the British Cycling website, he said: "The worlds is a big defining moment for us next year. Very little changes after that [before Rio], so you're going to get more of a gauge in 12 months than you will here.

"We didn't come to this worlds thinking we're going to come in and win a shed load of medals. We're doing all in our power [and] we know we can lead these guys into a successful Rio. We know where we are and we know what's needed.”

Team GB’s track cyclists won 14 medals in total at Beijing, and 12 in London, the difference explained by a rule change that meant only one rider per country was allowed in each individual event in 2012.

The dominance in the velodrome has seen UK Sport’s funding for cycling, which contributed nearly one in five medals won in London, increased to more than £30 million ahead of Rio.

At the same time, the body has set Great Britain’s Olympians across all sports the target of becoming the first country ever to increase its medal haul four years after hosting the Games – 66, against 65 won in London.

Without another significant contribution from track cycling, that goal may be out of reach.

However, Sutton put a brave face on the performance in Paris, saying: “That is three Olympic medals. We are at the races here, no doubt about it.”

Earlier this month, he all but ruled Mark Cavendish out of an Olympic place on the track, with the Etixx-Quick Step rider having previously said that qualification rules mean he will be hard-pressed to gain the necessary points while honouring his commitment to his team on the road.

But Sutton said: “If Cav wants to line up in the Omnium, or [Ben] Swift wants to line up in the omnium, or [Ed] Clancy wants to line up in the Omnium, then that is a fourth medal in which we are very competitive.”

The three medals in Paris all came in endurance events, but Sutton believes that the country’s sprinters, transitioning into a post-Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton era, can also win medals.

“The fifth one I think we will be very competitive in is the men's team sprint,” he said. “I think given where we got to with Kian Emadi, the ride he did at the Commonwealth Games, and at the worlds last year, he had really developed well as a man three, before he got injured.

“That all of a sudden gives us a real golden opportunity. Five medals in which we are really competitive still.”

He would not be drawn on numbers, however, saying: “I don't want to put a metric on it.

“We'll let everyone else do that. We just want to be the best we can be.

“Normally we take that attitude and we're successful. We have to go away and look at the detail and what it's going to take.”