? Yannick Eijssen injured after helicopter dislodges signboard
? Belgian rider the latest to suffer freak accident on WorldTour
Dogs, errant team cars and erratic motorcyclists have plagued cycling's WorldTour over the past few years but the Belgian rider Yannick Eijssen cannot expect to have been injured by a low-flying helicopter.
Eijssen was riding on Friday's third stage of the inaugural Tour of Beijing when a television company's helicopter flew sufficiently low to dislodge and blow a signboard into the path of a TV motorcyclist, who then collided with the BMC rider.
The 22-year-old suffered cuts to his face and fractured a bone in the roof his mouth. He will take no further part in the race, which finishes on Monday, while the race organisers will recommend that Beijing TV, the broadcaster of the race's pictures, fly higher above the peloton on the last two stages.
During this year's Tour de France Johnny Hoogerland required 33 stitches after a car belonging to France Télévisions forced him into a barbed wire fence while in the same race Nicki Sorensen was unseated and then dragged along the road by a TV motorcyclist.
Ireland's Nicolas Roche won the first WorldTour stage of his career after breaking clear of the peloton with his countryman Philip Deignan and Britain's Chris Froome, although the first two could take only one second off the race leader Tony Martin.
Martin, who led the field in stage one's time trial, is expected to hold on to his position at the top of the general classification with the last three days likely to favour the sprinters.
Britain's David Millar is second, 17 seconds back, with the British Team Sky pair Froome and Steve Cummings third and fourth.
? Yannick Eijssen injured after helicopter dislodges signboard
? Belgian rider the latest to suffer freak accident on WorldTour
Dogs, errant team cars and erratic motorcyclists have plagued cycling's WorldTour over the past few years but the Belgian rider Yannick Eijssen cannot expect to have been injured by a low-flying helicopter.
Eijssen was riding on Friday's third stage of the inaugural Tour of Beijing when a television company's helicopter flew sufficiently low to dislodge and blow a signboard into the path of a TV motorcyclist, who then collided with the BMC rider.
The 22-year-old suffered cuts to his face and fractured a bone in the roof his mouth. He will take no further part in the race, which finishes on Monday, while the race organisers will recommend that Beijing TV, the broadcaster of the race's pictures, fly higher above the peloton on the last two stages.
During this year's Tour de France Johnny Hoogerland required 33 stitches after a car belonging to France Télévisions forced him into a barbed wire fence while in the same race Nicki Sorensen was unseated and then dragged along the road by a TV motorcyclist.
Ireland's Nicolas Roche won the first WorldTour stage of his career after breaking clear of the peloton with his countryman Philip Deignan and Britain's Chris Froome, although the first two could take only one second off the race leader Tony Martin.
Martin, who led the field in stage one's time trial, is expected to hold on to his position at the top of the general classification with the last three days likely to favour the sprinters.
Britain's David Millar is second, 17 seconds back, with the British Team Sky pair Froome and Steve Cummings third and fourth.
From a sour-faced football coach to riot preparations Ukranian-style to sea cricket (yes, really) ? we bring you the best of this week's sports photography
From a sour-faced football coach to riot preparations Ukranian-style to sea cricket (yes, really) ? we bring you the best of this week's sports photography
? Sports including cycling and netball rewarded for growth
? Other sports punished for failing to hit participation targets
Sports including cycling and netball have been awarded seven-figure sums for their success in boosting grassroots participation, against a backdrop of falling numbers in others sports. Amid growing concern over the legacy for sports participation from the London 2012 Olympics, the public funding body Sport England has found £3.5m to reward sports that are bucking the trend.
It is the first example of a more ruthless approach that will see more sports docked funding if they fail to meet targets set in 2008 when £450m was distributed among governing bodies to try to increase by one million the number of people playing sport three or more times a week.
But the former sports minister Richard Caborn recently articulated widespread concern that the strategy had been wrongly implemented and Britain was "in danger of failing completely on the long-term sporting legacy of the Games".
The latest Sport England figures from April 2011 show that 17 sports have recorded a decline in the number of people playing once a week since 2007-08 and only four ? mountaineering, athletics, netball and table tennis ? have recorded a statistically significant increase.
"Cycling, running and netball are three success stories for community sport. They show how it can be done. We are recognising their success through this extra investment," said the Sport England chief executive, Jennie Price.
The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has said that the next round of "Whole Sport Plan" funding from 2013 will be distributed on a payment-by-results basis, with more of a focus on young people. Earlier this year he wrote to all governing bodies to warn them that they had to deliver.
The sports minister, Hugh Robertson, said: "These sports bodies have delivered on our key objective of driving up participation. The £3.5m of additional funding for these sports is so that they can continue this work, capitalise on the added interest that comes with hosting the Olympic Games and help create a real sporting legacy."
The additional money largely comes from cash withdrawn from other governing bodies deemed not to be hitting the targets they have been set. Basketball, rugby union and rugby league are among the sports that have had their funding cut.
British Cycling received an additional £1.058m with the aim of recruiting a further 12,000 weekly cyclists by expanding its Sky Ride local scheme. "I am delighted that British Cycling has been granted additional funding to develop its participation programmes," said the Olympic team pursuit champion Ed Clancy. "London 2012 is not only about athletes contesting Olympic and Paralympic medals, it is also about getting the nation active and leaving a lasting sport legacy for future generations."
England Netball, long held up by Sport England as a positive example for the way it has encouraged lapsed players to return to the sport, also received over £1m to achieve an increase of 8,500 extra players a week.
Another £1m will go to England Athletics to recruit 30,000 regular informal runners a week. The move will be seen as an attempt to boost numbers among the most popular sports ahead of the 2013 target date. Smaller awards will go to lacrosse and canoeing. The canoeist Tim Brabants, who won gold at the Beijing Games in 2008, said: "This additional investment demonstrates the confidence and health of canoeing in this country. The funding will help us continue to grow the sport and get more people enjoying canoeing on a regular basis, with the many positive benefits that brings.
"Go Canoeing is an exciting project; the tours, trails and series of events, delivered in a consumer-focused way, will broaden the appeal of canoeing to a wider market."
? Sports including cycling and netball rewarded for growth
? Other sports punished for failing to hit participation targets
Sports including cycling and netball have been awarded seven-figure sums for their success in boosting grassroots participation, against a backdrop of falling numbers in others sports. Amid growing concern over the legacy for sports participation from the London 2012 Olympics, the public funding body Sport England has found £3.5m to reward sports that are bucking the trend.
It is the first example of a more ruthless approach that will see more sports docked funding if they fail to meet targets set in 2008 when £450m was distributed among governing bodies to try to increase by one million the number of people playing sport three or more times a week.
But the former sports minister Richard Caborn recently articulated widespread concern that the strategy had been wrongly implemented and Britain was "in danger of failing completely on the long-term sporting legacy of the Games".
The latest Sport England figures from April 2011 show that 17 sports have recorded a decline in the number of people playing once a week since 2007-08 and only four ? mountaineering, athletics, netball and table tennis ? have recorded a statistically significant increase.
"Cycling, running and netball are three success stories for community sport. They show how it can be done. We are recognising their success through this extra investment," said the Sport England chief executive, Jennie Price.
The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has said that the next round of "Whole Sport Plan" funding from 2013 will be distributed on a payment-by-results basis, with more of a focus on young people. Earlier this year he wrote to all governing bodies to warn them that they had to deliver.
The sports minister, Hugh Robertson, said: "These sports bodies have delivered on our key objective of driving up participation. The £3.5m of additional funding for these sports is so that they can continue this work, capitalise on the added interest that comes with hosting the Olympic Games and help create a real sporting legacy."
The additional money largely comes from cash withdrawn from other governing bodies deemed not to be hitting the targets they have been set. Basketball, rugby union and rugby league are among the sports that have had their funding cut.
British Cycling received an additional £1.058m with the aim of recruiting a further 12,000 weekly cyclists by expanding its Sky Ride local scheme. "I am delighted that British Cycling has been granted additional funding to develop its participation programmes," said the Olympic team pursuit champion Ed Clancy. "London 2012 is not only about athletes contesting Olympic and Paralympic medals, it is also about getting the nation active and leaving a lasting sport legacy for future generations."
England Netball, long held up by Sport England as a positive example for the way it has encouraged lapsed players to return to the sport, also received over £1m to achieve an increase of 8,500 extra players a week.
Another £1m will go to England Athletics to recruit 30,000 regular informal runners a week. The move will be seen as an attempt to boost numbers among the most popular sports ahead of the 2013 target date. Smaller awards will go to lacrosse and canoeing. The canoeist Tim Brabants, who won gold at the Beijing Games in 2008, said: "This additional investment demonstrates the confidence and health of canoeing in this country. The funding will help us continue to grow the sport and get more people enjoying canoeing on a regular basis, with the many positive benefits that brings.
"Go Canoeing is an exciting project; the tours, trails and series of events, delivered in a consumer-focused way, will broaden the appeal of canoeing to a wider market."
? Olympic champion starts buildup in imperious form
? Joanna Rowsell takes starring role in team pursuit
Precisely who will be in Great Britain's team sprint squad at the London Olympic Games and in quite what order they will line up remains a work in progress and may well stay that way until next July. Sir Chris Hoy took his third national title in three days in the discipline, along with Jason Kenny and Jason Queally, but even he will not profess to feeling certain of his place.
The triple Beijing gold medallist has looked imperious, clearly back to his best thanks to a summer of hard work. "All the objective data is better than I had expected," said Hoy, who had not tapered his training before the championships and was not entirely fresh.
"I'll be looking to improve in each race before London, beginning with the European championships and the Kazakhstan World Cup, that's six weeks away so there was no chance I could back off for this."
Given that Hoy is determined to defend his three titles at London 2012 and that there is extra pressure with only one slot available in the sprint and keirin, his campaign has started perfectly.
"It's not a surprise because the training performances give you the data but it's right up with what I would have expected. There is a long way to go but that's the first box ticked."
On the other hand, Queally felt these championships were a reality check, even though he had won his first national title since 2006, and the trio posted a brace of fast collective times.
The gold medallist from the kilometre time trial at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 is 41. He had not ridden a team sprint since 2007 and was not happy with his split times. "Based on training I thought I'd go better. In all honesty it's a reminder of how difficult it is going to be."
He sat out the qualifying round where Matt Crampton anchored the trio, then came in for Crampton in the semi-final at man three, and moved to man two in the final, where he, Hoy and Kenny came up against a North West B team of Ross Edgar, Peter Mitchell and David Daniell.
It was a tight contest, with .016sec separating the two teams after two laps, before Hoy put in a searing final lap to clinch the gold.
Riding in the blue jerseys with the white stripes of North West A, Hoy, Crampton and Kenny qualified fastest in 44.372, then Kenny, Hoy and Queally put in the quickest ride of the day, 44.096 in the semi?final. Second fastest throughout were North West B for whom Daniell raced to his third silver medal in the three sprint events, having given the coaches a little more food for thought.
Great Britain's search for a starter to replace Jamie Staff has led Edgar to move to man one, and he was marginally faster than Kenny on Sunday, posting a personal best for the single standing lap in his second ride.
Kenny has not been razor sharp at these championships but according to the coaching staff he is only a few weeks' training away from his best.
He seemed quite content with his progress given that while Edgar had sat out the match sprint on Saturday, he had raced right through the competition to take the bronze medal.
In the absence of Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish, Becky James dominated the women's keirin title but the woman who has shown the most dramatic form is Joanna Rowsell, winner of the individual pursuit on day one, bronze medalist in the points race on day three, and one of the gold medal?winning trio from Horizon Fitness RT in the team pursuit on Sunday.
Rowsell, the Welshwoman Dani King ? ironically one of the women who supplanted her in the trio who won the world championship this spring ? and the multiple paralympic medalist Sarah Storey, qualified in a rapid 3min 25sec ride. In the final they dominated their opponents, Motorpoint Racing Team, to such an extent that they caught the other trio within two minutes after posting a first kilometre that was within national record time.
Rowsell, a stalwart of the women's team pursuit trio in recent seasons, was hampered last year by glandular fever and two nasty crashes which left her first with smashed teeth, then with a broken elbow. She had about 12 weeks away from cycling and did not really get under way until late this summer. "I hope this says 'Jo's back'," she said. She can rest assured it does.
This article has been amended since first publication
? Olympic champion starts buildup in imperious form
? Joanna Rowsell takes starring role in team pursuit
Precisely who will be in Great Britain's team sprint squad at the London Olympic Games and in quite what order they will line up remains a work in progress and may well stay that way until next July. Sir Chris Hoy took his third national title in three days in the discipline, along with Jason Kenny and Jason Queally, but even he will not profess to feeling certain of his place.
The triple Beijing gold medallist has looked imperious, clearly back to his best thanks to a summer of hard work. "All the objective data is better than I had expected," said Hoy, who had not tapered his training before the championships and was not entirely fresh.
"I'll be looking to improve in each race before London, beginning with the European championships and the Kazakhstan World Cup, that's six weeks away so there was no chance I could back off for this."
Given that Hoy is determined to defend his three titles at London 2012 and that there is extra pressure with only one slot available in the sprint and keirin, his campaign has started perfectly.
"It's not a surprise because the training performances give you the data but it's right up with what I would have expected. There is a long way to go but that's the first box ticked."
On the other hand, Queally felt these championships were a reality check, even though he had won his first national title since 2006, and the trio posted a brace of fast collective times.
The gold medallist from the kilometre time trial at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 is 41. He had not ridden a team sprint since 2007 and was not happy with his split times. "Based on training I thought I'd go better. In all honesty it's a reminder of how difficult it is going to be."
He sat out the qualifying round where Matt Crampton anchored the trio, then came in for Crampton in the semi-final at man three, and moved to man two in the final, where he, Hoy and Kenny came up against a North West B team of Ross Edgar, Peter Mitchell and David Daniell.
It was a tight contest, with .016sec separating the two teams after two laps, before Hoy put in a searing final lap to clinch the gold.
Riding in the blue jerseys with the white stripes of North West A, Hoy, Crampton and Kenny qualified fastest in 44.372, then Kenny, Hoy and Queally put in the quickest ride of the day, 44.096 in the semi?final. Second fastest throughout were North West B for whom Daniell raced to his third silver medal in the three sprint events, having given the coaches a little more food for thought.
Great Britain's search for a starter to replace Jamie Staff has led Edgar to move to man one, and he was marginally faster than Kenny on Sunday, posting a personal best for the single standing lap in his second ride.
Kenny has not been razor sharp at these championships but according to the coaching staff he is only a few weeks' training away from his best.
He seemed quite content with his progress given that while Edgar had sat out the match sprint on Saturday, he had raced right through the competition to take the bronze medal.
In the absence of Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish, Becky James dominated the women's keirin title but the woman who has shown the most dramatic form is Joanna Rowsell, winner of the individual pursuit on day one, bronze medalist in the points race on day three, and one of the gold medal?winning trio from Horizon Fitness RT in the team pursuit on Sunday.
Rowsell, the Welshwoman Dani King ? ironically one of the women who supplanted her in the trio who won the world championship this spring ? and the multiple paralympic medalist Sarah Storey, qualified in a rapid 3min 25sec ride. In the final they dominated their opponents, Motorpoint Racing Team, to such an extent that they caught the other trio within two minutes after posting a first kilometre that was within national record time.
Rowsell, a stalwart of the women's team pursuit trio in recent seasons, was hampered last year by glandular fever and two nasty crashes which left her first with smashed teeth, then with a broken elbow. She had about 12 weeks away from cycling and did not really get under way until late this summer. "I hope this says 'Jo's back'," she said. She can rest assured it does.
This article has been amended since first publication
? Olympic champion wins team sprint with Jess Varnish
? Pendleton expected to retire after London 2012
Victoria Pendleton has lost count of the medals she has won in national titles since taking bronze in the sprint in 1999 but Saturday's gold in the team sprint ? with Jess Varnish, her probable partner in the event at the London Olympics ? may have been her last, at least for a while.
The Beijing gold medallist said here that she is unlikely to return to the national championships after London, when she is expected to retire. "I've got about five kilos of medals, a reinforced shopping bag full, but it's definitely my last national as a sprinter. The only thing that might appeal to me is bunched races, you feel anonymous riding them and it's going to be nice riding my bike for fun."
This was Pendleton's only appearance of the week here and she looked a little more heavily muscled than in the past ? she has spent the past 12 months working on building her strength ? and what she estimated may be her 30th national title was a formality even though Varnish had tired legs given her efforts to take silver in the match sprint the previous day.
After the withdrawal of the 2008 world champion Shanaze Reade, leaving the newly crowed sprint champion, Becky James, without a partner, Varnish and Pendleton were in a class of their own, and the latter seemed relieved to get the racing over with and return to training for the European championships in the Netherlands later this month. She was expected to race three or four events here, but opted in the end to train through rather than compete all week, then lose training time next week.
"I had a little moment on Friday when I had to tell the organisers I wouldn't be riding for the first year since I started, the conditions were good for fast sprinting, but I've had a couple of days off to rehab my shoulder, had some back issues for a few months and it was important to get a week's solid strength work. It just wasn't the right thing for me."
? Olympic champion wins team sprint with Jess Varnish
? Pendleton expected to retire after London 2012
Victoria Pendleton has lost count of the medals she has won in national titles since taking bronze in the sprint in 1999 but Saturday's gold in the team sprint ? with Jess Varnish, her probable partner in the event at the London Olympics ? may have been her last, at least for a while.
The Beijing gold medallist said here that she is unlikely to return to the national championships after London, when she is expected to retire. "I've got about five kilos of medals, a reinforced shopping bag full, but it's definitely my last national as a sprinter. The only thing that might appeal to me is bunched races, you feel anonymous riding them and it's going to be nice riding my bike for fun."
This was Pendleton's only appearance of the week here and she looked a little more heavily muscled than in the past ? she has spent the past 12 months working on building her strength ? and what she estimated may be her 30th national title was a formality even though Varnish had tired legs given her efforts to take silver in the match sprint the previous day.
After the withdrawal of the 2008 world champion Shanaze Reade, leaving the newly crowed sprint champion, Becky James, without a partner, Varnish and Pendleton were in a class of their own, and the latter seemed relieved to get the racing over with and return to training for the European championships in the Netherlands later this month. She was expected to race three or four events here, but opted in the end to train through rather than compete all week, then lose training time next week.
"I had a little moment on Friday when I had to tell the organisers I wouldn't be riding for the first year since I started, the conditions were good for fast sprinting, but I've had a couple of days off to rehab my shoulder, had some back issues for a few months and it was important to get a week's solid strength work. It just wasn't the right thing for me."
? Olympic champion adds sprint title to keirin at nationals
? David Daniell surprises Jason Kenny to take silver
The contest for the single match sprint slot available to Great Britain in the London Olympics took an intriguing twist on Saturday. Sir Chris Hoy, reigning Olympic champion in the discipline, has returned to the driving seat after a somewhat low-key 2010-11 winter, taking the national title here, but another man may have entered the mix from left field: the Middlesbrough youngster David Daniell.
A year ago, Jason Kenny's victory against Hoy in the national sprint title heralded a winter and spring where he looked to have taken the edge over the Beijing triple gold medallist; now, however, the ball is back in Kenny's court, Hoy having delivered a stinging statement of intent to follow his convincing gold of Friday night in the keirin.
The Scot was quick to make the point that Daniell has not come from nowhere. "He's not a new challenger, there are a lot of guys here who have been around for a while. There is such a fight for places that there are guys who you don't see in world championships and World Cups. Breaking through is difficult."
Hoy will race again on Sunday in the team sprint, when the 2000 Sydney kilometre champion, Jason Queally, will be seen in action in a team sprint for the first time since 2007, but he already feels his London campaign is off to the perfect start. "This meeting is one of five races before the Games and I wanted to start as I want to continue. This has set me up nicely for the Europeans in two weeks. I'm bang on schedule."
While Hoy raced to a repeat of the title he took in 2009 on Saturday, Daniell created the biggest upset of the championship week by ousting the defending champion, Kenny, the Beijing silver medallist behind Hoy, and ? until Saturday ? the rider many would have fancied to pip the Scot for the Great Britain sprint place in London. It was a happy comeback for the 21-year-old, who did not make the team for the European under-23 championships earlier this season, but has bounced back.
Daniell qualified second fastest behind Hoy, and progressed seamlessly to the semi-final, as did Kenny, Hoy and another youngster, Peter Mitchell. In the first match of the semi-final, however, he surprised Kenny just before the bell, launching his effort as Kenny looked momentarily in the other direction.
He got the lead into the penultimate banking and held the national champion on his shoulder all the way to the line. In the second match, his confidence clearly sky-high and Kenny's apparently rocked, Daniell attacked at the bell and again survived as Kenny fought back. This time the gap was a mere seven centimetres, about the width of a deep-section carbon rim.
Daniell, who is only 21, was a double junior world champion in the team sprint ? in the same team as Kenny both times ? but has taken time to progress, although he has shown sparks of talent with victory in the kilometre time trial in the Manchester round of the World Cup in 2008 and 2009, and last year when he won silver in the keirin in the Commonwealth Games for England.
On Friday, however, he rode strongly throughout the keirin series to take the silver behind Hoy. Not surprisingly, he feels there is a chance he may emulate Kenny's dramatic late run before Beijing. "This is perfect coming into 2012, I've got to keep improving and who knows? Obviously getting into man three in the team sprint is my goal but at this rate of progression I might put myself forward for the sprint or the keirin."
It would have been too much to expect him to overcome Hoy in the final ? the Scot qualified 0.2sec faster for the flying 200m ? but he pushed him hard in the first match, where Hoy made his effort a lap and a half out, opening a gap which at first looked decisive, but which Daniell closed to less than half a wheel by the line.
The second match, however, was not nearly as close, with Daniell keeping Hoy high up the track and forcing the Scot into a colossal effort to overhaul him in the back straight. It underlined the point that Hoy has been making ever since Beijing: there is no room for complacency for any member of the British team. "Chris is a top-quality athlete and we're all chasing him," said Daniell. "He's on top but events like this show what the rest of us can do."
? Olympic champion adds sprint title to keirin at nationals
? David Daniell surprises Jason Kenny to take silver
The contest for the single match sprint slot available to Great Britain in the London Olympics took an intriguing twist on Saturday. Sir Chris Hoy, reigning Olympic champion in the discipline, has returned to the driving seat after a somewhat low-key 2010-11 winter, taking the national title here, but another man may have entered the mix from left field: the Middlesbrough youngster David Daniell.
A year ago, Jason Kenny's victory against Hoy in the national sprint title heralded a winter and spring where he looked to have taken the edge over the Beijing triple gold medallist; now, however, the ball is back in Kenny's court, Hoy having delivered a stinging statement of intent to follow his convincing gold of Friday night in the keirin.
The Scot was quick to make the point that Daniell has not come from nowhere. "He's not a new challenger, there are a lot of guys here who have been around for a while. There is such a fight for places that there are guys who you don't see in world championships and World Cups. Breaking through is difficult."
Hoy will race again on Sunday in the team sprint, when the 2000 Sydney kilometre champion, Jason Queally, will be seen in action in a team sprint for the first time since 2007, but he already feels his London campaign is off to the perfect start. "This meeting is one of five races before the Games and I wanted to start as I want to continue. This has set me up nicely for the Europeans in two weeks. I'm bang on schedule."
While Hoy raced to a repeat of the title he took in 2009 on Saturday, Daniell created the biggest upset of the championship week by ousting the defending champion, Kenny, the Beijing silver medallist behind Hoy, and ? until Saturday ? the rider many would have fancied to pip the Scot for the Great Britain sprint place in London. It was a happy comeback for the 21-year-old, who did not make the team for the European under-23 championships earlier this season, but has bounced back.
Daniell qualified second fastest behind Hoy, and progressed seamlessly to the semi-final, as did Kenny, Hoy and another youngster, Peter Mitchell. In the first match of the semi-final, however, he surprised Kenny just before the bell, launching his effort as Kenny looked momentarily in the other direction.
He got the lead into the penultimate banking and held the national champion on his shoulder all the way to the line. In the second match, his confidence clearly sky-high and Kenny's apparently rocked, Daniell attacked at the bell and again survived as Kenny fought back. This time the gap was a mere seven centimetres, about the width of a deep-section carbon rim.
Daniell, who is only 21, was a double junior world champion in the team sprint ? in the same team as Kenny both times ? but has taken time to progress, although he has shown sparks of talent with victory in the kilometre time trial in the Manchester round of the World Cup in 2008 and 2009, and last year when he won silver in the keirin in the Commonwealth Games for England.
On Friday, however, he rode strongly throughout the keirin series to take the silver behind Hoy. Not surprisingly, he feels there is a chance he may emulate Kenny's dramatic late run before Beijing. "This is perfect coming into 2012, I've got to keep improving and who knows? Obviously getting into man three in the team sprint is my goal but at this rate of progression I might put myself forward for the sprint or the keirin."
It would have been too much to expect him to overcome Hoy in the final ? the Scot qualified 0.2sec faster for the flying 200m ? but he pushed him hard in the first match, where Hoy made his effort a lap and a half out, opening a gap which at first looked decisive, but which Daniell closed to less than half a wheel by the line.
The second match, however, was not nearly as close, with Daniell keeping Hoy high up the track and forcing the Scot into a colossal effort to overhaul him in the back straight. It underlined the point that Hoy has been making ever since Beijing: there is no room for complacency for any member of the British team. "Chris is a top-quality athlete and we're all chasing him," said Daniell. "He's on top but events like this show what the rest of us can do."
? 22-year-old must choose between track and road events
? Armitstead won points race at National Track Championships
Choice is torture goes the saying, and Yorkshire's Lizzie Armitstead will be on the rack in the next few weeks. The 22-year-old has a quandary over what Olympic disciplines she should target in London next year, and her results in the last week will only have made the choice more difficult for her and the Great Britain cycling coaches.
Armitstead came seventh last Saturday in the world women's road race championship in Copenhagen, while at the National Track Championships in Manchester she dominated the British women's points race title on Friday and this Saturday she added a convincing win in the scratch race, giving clear evidence that her skill and speed on the boards have not been blunted by two seasons in which she has focused on the road. In London, she will have medal chances in the team pursuit, omnium and road race, but will not be able to race them all.
That seventh place in Copenhagen ? and the fact that she managed it after coming to a virtual standstill when held up by a crash in the last kilometre ? now sits alongside other results that underline her versatility: British national road race champion this year, omnium world championship silver medallist in 2010, gold, silver and bronze medals in the team pursuit, scratch and points world titles in 2009.
"I said before I came here that I wanted to see what my track legs are like after riding the road," she said after winning on Friday. "I've always loved the bunch races, which is why the omnium is so attractive to me. It's nice to remind myself that I can do it. The problem is that I love both the track and the road. Could I resist doing the track in London, on home ground?"
The conundrum is this. In an ideal world, Armitstead probably could compete in the road race and the omnium without too much difficulty. But the limitations on the numbers of athletes within track cycling mean that an "endurance" rider who races the omnium has to line up in the team pursuit as well. That, unfortunately, brings in a new level of complexity.
The preparation for the team pursuit is far more specific than for the road race, involving pure speed at the expense of the stamina road racing demands. Proper preparation for the road race would compromise the team pursuit ? where the British trio should start among the select group of gold medal favourites ? and vice versa.
So Armitstead has these options: just the road race, or team pursuit plus omnium. The road race has more of a lottery element to it, in that a crash or puncture or a poor tactical decision can ruin a cyclist's race, while the team pursuit is more mathematical: it can safely be said that any British woman who starts in London should get a medal of some kind. The omnium is betwixt and between, combining as it does timed and bunch events.
"Having seen the London road race course and looking at the level the team pursuit is now reaching it's obvious that I can't do all three. So I have to choose. It's a real dilemma. The chances are balanced more evenly now. I knew before Copenhagen that I had the speed to get on the podium in the road race as I've been improving all the time on the road. On the track my improvement has slowed down, and I'd have to try to get back into the team pursuit group."
Next week, once the national championships are out of the way, the British cyclists and coaching staff will meet to discuss Olympic selection policies, to make sure that all the riders are aware of the parameters and accept them. Not surprisingly, Armitstead hopes that this away-day will help her resolve the issue.
The waters are muddied by the way the British women's team rode in Copenhagen last Saturday. The team plan was to get Armitstead into position for the bunch sprint which it was expected would end the race. The women should, in essence, have produced something akin to the performance that earned Mark Cavendish the gold in the men's elite event. It did not work out that way.
Instead, Armitstead found herself alone when she was held up behind the crash in the final kilometre. "I think I missed the final wheel in the run-in, it could have made all the difference. There was no team-mate anywhere near me," she said.
Getting to seventh place from a standstill was no mean achievement, but she was, she says, in tears before she even crossed the line. "I will think about that race every day. It was one of those rare days when you feel like you are floating. It was the first time I'd really been up there, and it has made the track or road decision even harder."
? 22-year-old must choose between track and road events
? Armitstead won points race at National Track Championships
Choice is torture goes the saying, and Yorkshire's Lizzie Armitstead will be on the rack in the next few weeks. The 22-year-old has a quandary over what Olympic disciplines she should target in London next year, and her results in the last week will only have made the choice more difficult for her and the Great Britain cycling coaches.
Armitstead came seventh last Saturday in the world women's road race championship in Copenhagen, while at the National Track Championships in Manchester she dominated the British women's points race title on Friday and this Saturday she added a convincing win in the scratch race, giving clear evidence that her skill and speed on the boards have not been blunted by two seasons in which she has focused on the road. In London, she will have medal chances in the team pursuit, omnium and road race, but will not be able to race them all.
That seventh place in Copenhagen ? and the fact that she managed it after coming to a virtual standstill when held up by a crash in the last kilometre ? now sits alongside other results that underline her versatility: British national road race champion this year, omnium world championship silver medallist in 2010, gold, silver and bronze medals in the team pursuit, scratch and points world titles in 2009.
"I said before I came here that I wanted to see what my track legs are like after riding the road," she said after winning on Friday. "I've always loved the bunch races, which is why the omnium is so attractive to me. It's nice to remind myself that I can do it. The problem is that I love both the track and the road. Could I resist doing the track in London, on home ground?"
The conundrum is this. In an ideal world, Armitstead probably could compete in the road race and the omnium without too much difficulty. But the limitations on the numbers of athletes within track cycling mean that an "endurance" rider who races the omnium has to line up in the team pursuit as well. That, unfortunately, brings in a new level of complexity.
The preparation for the team pursuit is far more specific than for the road race, involving pure speed at the expense of the stamina road racing demands. Proper preparation for the road race would compromise the team pursuit ? where the British trio should start among the select group of gold medal favourites ? and vice versa.
So Armitstead has these options: just the road race, or team pursuit plus omnium. The road race has more of a lottery element to it, in that a crash or puncture or a poor tactical decision can ruin a cyclist's race, while the team pursuit is more mathematical: it can safely be said that any British woman who starts in London should get a medal of some kind. The omnium is betwixt and between, combining as it does timed and bunch events.
"Having seen the London road race course and looking at the level the team pursuit is now reaching it's obvious that I can't do all three. So I have to choose. It's a real dilemma. The chances are balanced more evenly now. I knew before Copenhagen that I had the speed to get on the podium in the road race as I've been improving all the time on the road. On the track my improvement has slowed down, and I'd have to try to get back into the team pursuit group."
Next week, once the national championships are out of the way, the British cyclists and coaching staff will meet to discuss Olympic selection policies, to make sure that all the riders are aware of the parameters and accept them. Not surprisingly, Armitstead hopes that this away-day will help her resolve the issue.
The waters are muddied by the way the British women's team rode in Copenhagen last Saturday. The team plan was to get Armitstead into position for the bunch sprint which it was expected would end the race. The women should, in essence, have produced something akin to the performance that earned Mark Cavendish the gold in the men's elite event. It did not work out that way.
Instead, Armitstead found herself alone when she was held up behind the crash in the final kilometre. "I think I missed the final wheel in the run-in, it could have made all the difference. There was no team-mate anywhere near me," she said.
Getting to seventh place from a standstill was no mean achievement, but she was, she says, in tears before she even crossed the line. "I will think about that race every day. It was one of those rare days when you feel like you are floating. It was the first time I'd really been up there, and it has made the track or road decision even harder."
Cycling's British knight could not have asked for a better start to the final winter before he defends his three Olympic gold medals
Sir Chris Hoy could not have asked for a better beginning to the final winter before he defends his three Olympic gold medals. He opened his 2011-12 account with a national championship gold medal in the keirin, taken in a searing style that suggests there may be some truth in the rumours that he is in stupendous form.
What impressed was the style in which Hoy took gold. He was poorly placed coming into the penultimate lap, in fifth place in the string, and had to fight all the way after making his effort with a lap and a half to go. He had to take the long way round the final banking, above the pack, and he snuck past on the line.
"My top speed is really good just now," said Hoy. "The strategy was to try and go from the back at one point in the evening, but to do it to win. The crucial thing if you're going to do that is that you have to be 100% committed. There was no point in trying to jump Jason [Kenny] too soon but I knew when I did it that I had to give it everything."
If the winter is about Hoy and the European champion, Kenny, fighting for supremacy in the run-up to London, on Friday the first battle went to Hoy, with Kenny fourth behind David Daniell and Philip Hindes, two youngsters. Hoy and Kenny cruised through the opening rounds, with the draw keeping them apart until the final. Hoy no longer relies so heavily on the from-the-front style that won him gold in Beijing and he waited until the bell to make his move in the semi-final. Kenny simply controlled the racing from the front, Hoy-style.
Ross Edgar, the defending champion, had a more torrid time. He was edged out in the qualifying round and forced to fight his way back through the repechage before looking squeezed out with two laps to go in his semi-final. He was forced to fight through the traffic to squeak into third and secure his final slot.
For Hoy, there was relief in getting his winter's racing under way. He has recently set a personal best in the squat thrust in the gym and he looks trimmer and sharper than a year ago, when he fell ill in national championship week and was forced to pull out. Now, 10 months out from London, he has stripped his engagement calendar to a minimum and is once again "looking at ways of leaving no stone unturned". What it equated to last night was only his fourth solo national championship medal.
The first final of the night, the women's points race, fell to Lizzie Armitstead six days after she finished seventh in the world road race championships in Copenhagen. Armitstead is in contention to ride three events in London, the road race, the team pursuit and the omnium, and said on Friday night that rediscovering her track legs here would make the decision between track and road even harder.
In the silver position was another London probable, Laura Trott, Armitstead's probable rival for an omnium place and one of the gold medal winning trio in the team pursuit in Holland in the spring. The bronze went to another team pursuiter, Jo Rowsell, already crowned individual pursuit champion earlier in the week and clearly back to her best after a low-key winter in 2010-11.
Victoria Pendleton will make her only appearance of the championships on Saturday when she lines up for the team sprint with Jess Varnish, who has emerged as Pendleton's probable starter in London. Varnish's hopes of sealing the slot were strengthened on Friday when the only other contender, the BMX star Shanaze Reade, pulled out of Saturday's championship, which should be a formality for Varnish and Pendleton.
The only issue will be how much Varnish has in the tank for her opening lap. She is clearly in coruscating form, having won the 500 metre time-trial title on Wednesday in a personal best, and on Friday she went all the way to the final in the match sprint, which has been Pendleton's fiefdom for the past eight years. The latter withdrew late on, however ? having also pulled out of the 500 ? citing the need to focus on strength training, with her eyes on the European championships in the third week of October.
In the Olympic champion's absence, the title went to Becky James, who disposed of Varnish in two rides in the final. Together with Varnish, the 19-year-old has been snapping at Pendleton's heels for a couple of years, in which she has won junior world titles and Commonwealth Games medals. She will start as favourite on Sunday for the keirin motorpaced sprint, from which Pendleton has also withdrawn, but whether she can threaten the Olympic champion for the slot in the event in London will become apparent only in the next few months.
Cycling's British knight could not have asked for a better start to the final winter before he defends his three Olympic gold medals
Sir Chris Hoy could not have asked for a better beginning to the final winter before he defends his three Olympic gold medals. He opened his 2011-12 account with a national championship gold medal in the keirin, taken in a searing style that suggests there may be some truth in the rumours that he is in stupendous form.
What impressed was the style in which Hoy took gold. He was poorly placed coming into the penultimate lap, in fifth place in the string, and had to fight all the way after making his effort with a lap and a half to go. He had to take the long way round the final banking, above the pack, and he snuck past on the line.
"My top speed is really good just now," said Hoy. "The strategy was to try and go from the back at one point in the evening, but to do it to win. The crucial thing if you're going to do that is that you have to be 100% committed. There was no point in trying to jump Jason [Kenny] too soon but I knew when I did it that I had to give it everything."
If the winter is about Hoy and the European champion, Kenny, fighting for supremacy in the run-up to London, on Friday the first battle went to Hoy, with Kenny fourth behind David Daniell and Philip Hindes, two youngsters. Hoy and Kenny cruised through the opening rounds, with the draw keeping them apart until the final. Hoy no longer relies so heavily on the from-the-front style that won him gold in Beijing and he waited until the bell to make his move in the semi-final. Kenny simply controlled the racing from the front, Hoy-style.
Ross Edgar, the defending champion, had a more torrid time. He was edged out in the qualifying round and forced to fight his way back through the repechage before looking squeezed out with two laps to go in his semi-final. He was forced to fight through the traffic to squeak into third and secure his final slot.
For Hoy, there was relief in getting his winter's racing under way. He has recently set a personal best in the squat thrust in the gym and he looks trimmer and sharper than a year ago, when he fell ill in national championship week and was forced to pull out. Now, 10 months out from London, he has stripped his engagement calendar to a minimum and is once again "looking at ways of leaving no stone unturned". What it equated to last night was only his fourth solo national championship medal.
The first final of the night, the women's points race, fell to Lizzie Armitstead six days after she finished seventh in the world road race championships in Copenhagen. Armitstead is in contention to ride three events in London, the road race, the team pursuit and the omnium, and said on Friday night that rediscovering her track legs here would make the decision between track and road even harder.
In the silver position was another London probable, Laura Trott, Armitstead's probable rival for an omnium place and one of the gold medal winning trio in the team pursuit in Holland in the spring. The bronze went to another team pursuiter, Jo Rowsell, already crowned individual pursuit champion earlier in the week and clearly back to her best after a low-key winter in 2010-11.
Victoria Pendleton will make her only appearance of the championships on Saturday when she lines up for the team sprint with Jess Varnish, who has emerged as Pendleton's probable starter in London. Varnish's hopes of sealing the slot were strengthened on Friday when the only other contender, the BMX star Shanaze Reade, pulled out of Saturday's championship, which should be a formality for Varnish and Pendleton.
The only issue will be how much Varnish has in the tank for her opening lap. She is clearly in coruscating form, having won the 500 metre time-trial title on Wednesday in a personal best, and on Friday she went all the way to the final in the match sprint, which has been Pendleton's fiefdom for the past eight years. The latter withdrew late on, however ? having also pulled out of the 500 ? citing the need to focus on strength training, with her eyes on the European championships in the third week of October.
In the Olympic champion's absence, the title went to Becky James, who disposed of Varnish in two rides in the final. Together with Varnish, the 19-year-old has been snapping at Pendleton's heels for a couple of years, in which she has won junior world titles and Commonwealth Games medals. She will start as favourite on Sunday for the keirin motorpaced sprint, from which Pendleton has also withdrawn, but whether she can threaten the Olympic champion for the slot in the event in London will become apparent only in the next few months.
Britain's sprint stars can set the early pace for London 2012 places at the national championships
Indian summer or not, at the Manchester Velodrome a very special winter of track racing is beginning this week with the national open championships. Sir Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton, Jason Kenny, Jason Queally and the other sprint stars take centre stage from Friday with selection for the London Olympics eight months away, and only six major events remaining before August 2012.
There is plenty to play for. Hoy, Pendleton and Kenny are as certain as any athlete can be of their respective places, but behind them the battle is intense for the remaining slots, particularly in the men's team sprint, which has been in flux, with various line-ups being fielded since Jamie Staff retired in 2010. Queally's return to the fray at the age of 41 merely ramps up the pressure on the younger contenders, led by Matt Crampton, and Ross Edgar.
"The plan is for everyone to get a run-out so we can gauge form ahead of the European championships and World Cup in Kazakhstan," the sprint coach, Iain Dyer, says. "We're a month from the Europeans, the riders are starting to find form, and after this we can do the fine tuning, be it tactics or fitness."
Context is everything and this weekend's duels come in the heart of the buildup to two key qualifying events for London. Great Britain have targeted the European championships in the Netherlands, on 21-23 October, and the opening round of the World Cup in Kazakhstan two weeks later to get qualifying points in the bag, so that the main players can avoid the fatigue and loss of training time involved in travelling to the World Cup rounds in Colombia and China.
"In some respects we're going to benefit from a clump of two events in quick succession," Dyer says. "That means we can peak for one short period, then go back into hard training for a long spell, do the hard yards in November, December and January." This weekend is the beginning of that process.
The World Cup round on the London velodrome in late February and the world championships in early April will be the next target time, with London critical for world championship selection, and the worlds, in their turn, decisive for forming the Olympic team. And this autumn's events, going back down the ladder, are vital for London.
Over last season, Hoy and Kenny's personal battle in the two solo sprint disciplines, keirin and match sprint, made an intriguing soap opera, with the younger man edging ahead over the winter in the sprint and Hoy holding his own in the keirin. That head-to-head resumes on Friday in the keirin, with both men challenging Edgar, the champion last year. On Saturday Hoy attempts to depose Kenny from the sprint throne, while on Sunday Queally makes his return to team sprinting for the North West Region A team along with Hoy, Kenny and Matt Crampton.
The biggest stars in the men's endurance disciplines, team pursuit and omnium, are holding their fire for various reasons. Geraint Thomas and Ed Clancy have just come off full road racing seasons and are feeling their way back into the intensity of track training; Bradley Wiggins has yet to decide whether he will be on track or road in London. In their absence, the sprinters will top the bill over the next three days.
On the evidence of the first two days' racing, those in fine fettle for the winter include Jess Varnish, Pendleton's starter in the team sprint, who on Wednesday posted a personal best to win the 500m time trial, where Pendleton was a non-starter. Varnish progressed rapidly last season at "woman one" and her hand has also been strengthened by the withdrawal of the other candidate for the role, the BMX specialist Shanaze Reade, who is injured.
In the women's individual pursuit on Thursday Jo Rowsell ? one of the candidates for a place in the team event in Beijing ? qualified fastest ahead of the team pursuit world champions, Laura Trott and Wendy Houvenaghel. Rowsell missed out on a place at the world championships in the spring but this ride indicates she has regained her form.
Britain's sprint stars can set the early pace for London 2012 places at the national championships
Indian summer or not, at the Manchester Velodrome a very special winter of track racing is beginning this week with the national open championships. Sir Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton, Jason Kenny, Jason Queally and the other sprint stars take centre stage from Friday with selection for the London Olympics eight months away, and only six major events remaining before August 2012.
There is plenty to play for. Hoy, Pendleton and Kenny are as certain as any athlete can be of their respective places, but behind them the battle is intense for the remaining slots, particularly in the men's team sprint, which has been in flux, with various line-ups being fielded since Jamie Staff retired in 2010. Queally's return to the fray at the age of 41 merely ramps up the pressure on the younger contenders, led by Matt Crampton, and Ross Edgar.
"The plan is for everyone to get a run-out so we can gauge form ahead of the European championships and World Cup in Kazakhstan," the sprint coach, Iain Dyer, says. "We're a month from the Europeans, the riders are starting to find form, and after this we can do the fine tuning, be it tactics or fitness."
Context is everything and this weekend's duels come in the heart of the buildup to two key qualifying events for London. Great Britain have targeted the European championships in the Netherlands, on 21-23 October, and the opening round of the World Cup in Kazakhstan two weeks later to get qualifying points in the bag, so that the main players can avoid the fatigue and loss of training time involved in travelling to the World Cup rounds in Colombia and China.
"In some respects we're going to benefit from a clump of two events in quick succession," Dyer says. "That means we can peak for one short period, then go back into hard training for a long spell, do the hard yards in November, December and January." This weekend is the beginning of that process.
The World Cup round on the London velodrome in late February and the world championships in early April will be the next target time, with London critical for world championship selection, and the worlds, in their turn, decisive for forming the Olympic team. And this autumn's events, going back down the ladder, are vital for London.
Over last season, Hoy and Kenny's personal battle in the two solo sprint disciplines, keirin and match sprint, made an intriguing soap opera, with the younger man edging ahead over the winter in the sprint and Hoy holding his own in the keirin. That head-to-head resumes on Friday in the keirin, with both men challenging Edgar, the champion last year. On Saturday Hoy attempts to depose Kenny from the sprint throne, while on Sunday Queally makes his return to team sprinting for the North West Region A team along with Hoy, Kenny and Matt Crampton.
The biggest stars in the men's endurance disciplines, team pursuit and omnium, are holding their fire for various reasons. Geraint Thomas and Ed Clancy have just come off full road racing seasons and are feeling their way back into the intensity of track training; Bradley Wiggins has yet to decide whether he will be on track or road in London. In their absence, the sprinters will top the bill over the next three days.
On the evidence of the first two days' racing, those in fine fettle for the winter include Jess Varnish, Pendleton's starter in the team sprint, who on Wednesday posted a personal best to win the 500m time trial, where Pendleton was a non-starter. Varnish progressed rapidly last season at "woman one" and her hand has also been strengthened by the withdrawal of the other candidate for the role, the BMX specialist Shanaze Reade, who is injured.
In the women's individual pursuit on Thursday Jo Rowsell ? one of the candidates for a place in the team event in Beijing ? qualified fastest ahead of the team pursuit world champions, Laura Trott and Wendy Houvenaghel. Rowsell missed out on a place at the world championships in the spring but this ride indicates she has regained her form.
The 2000 Olympics kilometre champion is pushing for a place in the team sprint for a London 2012 swansong at the age of 42
Having surprised the cycling world once in 2000 when he became the Olympic kilometre champion, Jason Queally could shock the entire sporting world next August by bringing his on-off career with Great Britain to a dramatic close. Having retired, then returned to a different discipline, the team pursuit, he is now pushing hard for a place in Great Britain's team sprint lineup at London 2012, when he will be 42.
On Sunday Queally will ride his first competitive team sprint since 2007, when he competes in the national track championships, which start on Thursday at the Manchester Velodrome, and he is in line for a place in the European championships in Holland at the end of October. Last November he took gold in the Europeans in the team pursuit, raising the prospect that he could win two European medals in radically different disciplines in the space of 12 months, against cyclists almost half his age.
"I'm basically as quick as I was in 2008," Queally says. "I don't think I've definitely got a spot in the team ? it's a little bit frustrating because I'm on the cusp. I'm aiming for London but not thinking I'm going to get there. I'm taking it one day at a time. But gosh, if it happens, being part of a home Olympics 12 years on, it would be a bizarre dream, a fairytale."
The Lancastrian appeared to have left Olympic competition behind in July 2008 when he was left out of the sprint squad for Beijing after being ousted by the young prodigy Jason Kenny. Queally retired and hoped to continue racing as a tandem pilot in the Paralympic track events, but was invited to join the 4,000 metres team pursuit squad after he began training with them to gain stamina for his Paralympic racing.
In 2010, with Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas focusing on road racing, there was a gap in the team pursuit and Queally stepped in to provide some extra speed. The experiment worked well enough that last year he was a fully integrated squad member, culminating in his ride at the Europeans. Coincidentally, as he helped Ed Clancy, Steven Burke and Andy Tennant claim gold, the team sprint trio of Kenny, Sir Chris Hoy and Matt Crampton were riding to a disappointing bronze, underlining that the sprinters were still off the standard they had set in 2008.
By the end of the 2010-11 track season, however, Queally felt he was not going to make the London squad in the 4,000m, because it was obvious that Wiggins and Thomas would return, and "the younger boys were better than me". He was on the point of retiring a second time, when the track head coach, Shane Sutton, suggested a move back to the team sprint. "We were going very quick in team pursuit training, almost as fast as in the team sprint, and they believed that with the endurance skill I'd got riding the team pursuit I might have it in me to do man three. I was asked before I jumped."
The team sprint is three laps flat out, with the first two riders peeling off after each has done their lap, while the team pursuit is a more measured 16-lap effort, with at least three of the four-man team having to finish together. They are radically different disciplines, which makes Queally's achievement all the more remarkable. "My belief is that there is probably only a small amount of benefit that you get from one for the other. But for whatever reason it's been good for me.
"The whole dynamics of the team sprint squad have changed since Jamie Staff retired [in 2009]. They have still got Chris and Jason [Kenny], but the options they were looking at to fill the gap Jamie left haven't worked out. No one has progressed to the level where they can fill the third spot and be as good as they were in Beijing. Everyone is desperate to make the squad. They've juggled all the positions but nothing has developed."
The team sprint equation has changed in another way: in London, the schedule means that the team will ride three times in the same day, with less than an hour between the second round and the final. "Matt's been doing man three, but over two or three rides, he tends to do one good ride, the second one not quite as good." To cover this, the team can take four sprinters and juggle them as required. "If we can get Jason at his best in man one, Chris has a good lap two and I can peg on a decent lap three, we should be virtually there."
A medal in London, of any colour, would be a dramatic final twist for the man whose Sydney gold kickstarted the run of Great Britain cycling successes that has yet to slacken. For Queally, however, it is about simply doing what he loves to do. "Forty-one and paid to ride your bike is fantastic. I see what people have to do in the real world and I don't want to do that. If it happens, brilliant, if not I'll have had a good time getting there."
Cycling is one of the few sports in which athletes compete strongly into their late 30s and in some cases even later. Next year Sir Chris Hoy will be aiming for Olympic golds at 36, while Jamie Staff took gold in Beijing at 35, Lance Armstrong finished third in the Tour de France at 37, while Malcolm Elliott competed with the best in Britain into his 50th year.
"People always ask about peaking, what is the optimal age for an athlete and it's rubbish," says Scott Gardner, performance science consultant to British Cycling. "What it's about is sport and what you have to do to train for sport. One of the biggest things in cycling is that it is non-impact. The only time you put large loads through the muscles is in the gym. Jason Queally hasn't been in the gym since Sydney and he's an ingenious guy.
"He does good specific training, quality rather than volume, and doesn't waste time on things he doesn't need. He moved to time-trialling on the track early on in his career,. He was lucky to have a coach in Martin Barras before Sydney who let him do his own thing, and facilitated it. And if you look at him, Chris Hoy and Jamie Staff they have immense desire. Jamie was producing more power at 35 than he ever had in his life, but he had to retire because his back gave out.
"If you compare cycling to other sports, I'd say there is more variety. In swimming maybe they tend to quit earlier because swimming up and down a black line five or six days a week is mind-numbing ? you can only do it for so long. If you think outside that, as someone like Mark Foster did, you can keep going until you are older."
The 2000 Olympics kilometre champion is pushing for a place in the team sprint for a London 2012 swansong at the age of 42
Having surprised the cycling world once in 2000 when he became the Olympic kilometre champion, Jason Queally could shock the entire sporting world next August by bringing his on-off career with Great Britain to a dramatic close. Having retired, then returned to a different discipline, the team pursuit, he is now pushing hard for a place in Great Britain's team sprint lineup at London 2012, when he will be 42.
On Sunday Queally will ride his first competitive team sprint since 2007, when he competes in the national track championships, which start on Thursday at the Manchester Velodrome, and he is in line for a place in the European championships in Holland at the end of October. Last November he took gold in the Europeans in the team pursuit, raising the prospect that he could win two European medals in radically different disciplines in the space of 12 months, against cyclists almost half his age.
"I'm basically as quick as I was in 2008," Queally says. "I don't think I've definitely got a spot in the team ? it's a little bit frustrating because I'm on the cusp. I'm aiming for London but not thinking I'm going to get there. I'm taking it one day at a time. But gosh, if it happens, being part of a home Olympics 12 years on, it would be a bizarre dream, a fairytale."
The Lancastrian appeared to have left Olympic competition behind in July 2008 when he was left out of the sprint squad for Beijing after being ousted by the young prodigy Jason Kenny. Queally retired and hoped to continue racing as a tandem pilot in the Paralympic track events, but was invited to join the 4,000 metres team pursuit squad after he began training with them to gain stamina for his Paralympic racing.
In 2010, with Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas focusing on road racing, there was a gap in the team pursuit and Queally stepped in to provide some extra speed. The experiment worked well enough that last year he was a fully integrated squad member, culminating in his ride at the Europeans. Coincidentally, as he helped Ed Clancy, Steven Burke and Andy Tennant claim gold, the team sprint trio of Kenny, Sir Chris Hoy and Matt Crampton were riding to a disappointing bronze, underlining that the sprinters were still off the standard they had set in 2008.
By the end of the 2010-11 track season, however, Queally felt he was not going to make the London squad in the 4,000m, because it was obvious that Wiggins and Thomas would return, and "the younger boys were better than me". He was on the point of retiring a second time, when the track head coach, Shane Sutton, suggested a move back to the team sprint. "We were going very quick in team pursuit training, almost as fast as in the team sprint, and they believed that with the endurance skill I'd got riding the team pursuit I might have it in me to do man three. I was asked before I jumped."
The team sprint is three laps flat out, with the first two riders peeling off after each has done their lap, while the team pursuit is a more measured 16-lap effort, with at least three of the four-man team having to finish together. They are radically different disciplines, which makes Queally's achievement all the more remarkable. "My belief is that there is probably only a small amount of benefit that you get from one for the other. But for whatever reason it's been good for me.
"The whole dynamics of the team sprint squad have changed since Jamie Staff retired [in 2009]. They have still got Chris and Jason [Kenny], but the options they were looking at to fill the gap Jamie left haven't worked out. No one has progressed to the level where they can fill the third spot and be as good as they were in Beijing. Everyone is desperate to make the squad. They've juggled all the positions but nothing has developed."
The team sprint equation has changed in another way: in London, the schedule means that the team will ride three times in the same day, with less than an hour between the second round and the final. "Matt's been doing man three, but over two or three rides, he tends to do one good ride, the second one not quite as good." To cover this, the team can take four sprinters and juggle them as required. "If we can get Jason at his best in man one, Chris has a good lap two and I can peg on a decent lap three, we should be virtually there."
A medal in London, of any colour, would be a dramatic final twist for the man whose Sydney gold kickstarted the run of Great Britain cycling successes that has yet to slacken. For Queally, however, it is about simply doing what he loves to do. "Forty-one and paid to ride your bike is fantastic. I see what people have to do in the real world and I don't want to do that. If it happens, brilliant, if not I'll have had a good time getting there."
Cycling is one of the few sports in which athletes compete strongly into their late 30s and in some cases even later. Next year Sir Chris Hoy will be aiming for Olympic golds at 36, while Jamie Staff took gold in Beijing at 35, Lance Armstrong finished third in the Tour de France at 37, while Malcolm Elliott competed with the best in Britain into his 50th year.
"People always ask about peaking, what is the optimal age for an athlete and it's rubbish," says Scott Gardner, performance science consultant to British Cycling. "What it's about is sport and what you have to do to train for sport. One of the biggest things in cycling is that it is non-impact. The only time you put large loads through the muscles is in the gym. Jason Queally hasn't been in the gym since Sydney and he's an ingenious guy.
"He does good specific training, quality rather than volume, and doesn't waste time on things he doesn't need. He moved to time-trialling on the track early on in his career,. He was lucky to have a coach in Martin Barras before Sydney who let him do his own thing, and facilitated it. And if you look at him, Chris Hoy and Jamie Staff they have immense desire. Jamie was producing more power at 35 than he ever had in his life, but he had to retire because his back gave out.
"If you compare cycling to other sports, I'd say there is more variety. In swimming maybe they tend to quit earlier because swimming up and down a black line five or six days a week is mind-numbing ? you can only do it for so long. If you think outside that, as someone like Mark Foster did, you can keep going until you are older."
Mark Cavendish's cycling victory was more than just the sum of better aerodynamics
There are many examples of sportsmen acting selflessly to ensure their team-mates win ? the help Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway gave as pace runners for Roger Bannister's four-minute mile in 1954 being just one. But there are few examples of getting a whole team pitching up, unpaid, to help one person get an individual medal. It is rarer still for the whole plan to have been hatched three years ago. But such was the case with Mark Cavendish's victory at the road world championships in Copenhagen on Sunday. As the Olympic cycling gold medalist Chris Boardman explained, the team in a road race are there to protect one man aerodynamically, without which he could not have made the 266-kilometre course. The team had its fair share of stars ? Bradley Wiggins, who has set his sights on the Tour de France, David Millar, the team captain, Geraint Thomas. Wiggins rode eight kilometres in the lead to keep Cavendish up front. In the end they stuck together at the front and delivered their man with a few hundred metres to go. The prize should have gone to the team, but everyone knew it would only go to one man. Whatever the reason ? and Rod Ellingworth's influence as the British Cycling coach is clearly visible ? these men have been infused with a common purpose which is exhilarating to watch. In a world where everything is about money and individualism, Cavendish's victory was more than just the sum of better aerodynamics. It was about the lost art of finding a common purpose.
Mark Cavendish's cycling victory was more than just the sum of better aerodynamics
There are many examples of sportsmen acting selflessly to ensure their team-mates win ? the help Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway gave as pace runners for Roger Bannister's four-minute mile in 1954 being just one. But there are few examples of getting a whole team pitching up, unpaid, to help one person get an individual medal. It is rarer still for the whole plan to have been hatched three years ago. But such was the case with Mark Cavendish's victory at the road world championships in Copenhagen on Sunday. As the Olympic cycling gold medalist Chris Boardman explained, the team in a road race are there to protect one man aerodynamically, without which he could not have made the 266-kilometre course. The team had its fair share of stars ? Bradley Wiggins, who has set his sights on the Tour de France, David Millar, the team captain, Geraint Thomas. Wiggins rode eight kilometres in the lead to keep Cavendish up front. In the end they stuck together at the front and delivered their man with a few hundred metres to go. The prize should have gone to the team, but everyone knew it would only go to one man. Whatever the reason ? and Rod Ellingworth's influence as the British Cycling coach is clearly visible ? these men have been infused with a common purpose which is exhilarating to watch. In a world where everything is about money and individualism, Cavendish's victory was more than just the sum of better aerodynamics. It was about the lost art of finding a common purpose.
? Cyclist believes unprecedented double next summer is possible
? 'Golds haven't changed my life but the Tour certainly would'
Bradley Wiggins is targeting both the Tour de France yellow jersey and Olympic gold next summer and believes British Cycling will decide in the next few weeks which events he should target at the London Games.
Fresh from winning silver in the world time trial in Copenhagen and helping Mark Cavendish to gold in the road race, Wiggins said he believes more strongly than ever that securing an unprecedented double is possible.
"I've done the Olympics, this will be my fourth, I've been there and got the golds. They haven't changed my life but winning the Tour would certainly change my life," he said. "Winning gold on the back of winning the Tour would certainly change my life and perhaps put me into a different bracket as an athlete."
Wiggins said it was the prospect of combining a serious challenge in the Tour, in which he finished fourth in 2009 but had to withdraw with a broken collarbone this year, with an Olympic challenge that had fired his enthusiasm for the Games.
"It's never been done so I think if I wasn't doing the tour next year and I was just going back to do the team pursuit and I had the winter to look forward to of going back on the track, the World Cups, the world championships in March and all that it wouldn't excite me at all," said the six-times Olympic medallist.
"I would really not be looking forward to it. The only way I'd ever do the track now is by coming back off the road. It's got to excite you to be able to do it."
The Team Sky rider ? who has three Olympic golds, a silver and two bronzes in his collection ? said he saw winning the Tour and securing a medal at the Games, which starts days after the Champs-Elysées finish to the Tour, as two halves of the same challenge.
"As crazy as it sounds to everyone, I don't see it as compromising one for the other. That's what I want to do ? it's not a case of justifying why I'm doing it either," said Wiggins. "This is what I want to do, follow me and see what the results are and we'll talk about it afterwards. I'm doing it."
He said completing the Tour of Spain after breaking his collarbone and completing "the time trial of my life" at the world championships proved he could compete in both disciplines.
Wiggins said that given the choice he would compete in "everything" at the Olympics but he is likely to target the team pursuit on the track over the time trial on the road. "I'll ride the event I've got most chance of winning gold in and at this stage that will probably be the team pursuit, I imagine," he said. He said his coach, Shane Sutton, and others at British Cycling had "probably" already made the decision and expected to hear in "the next few weeks".
Wiggins, who set Cavendish up for his momentous victory on the final lap, hailed a "fantastic team performance" that helped the Manx rider to gold.
"Our plan worked perfectly. We always knew if we got him to that finish straight he'd be the fastest rider there. That's part of the belief the whole team had, that's why there was such commitment from everyone because knew Mark was going to finish it off," he said. "It's like a football team with the best striker in the world. Our job was quite easy in some respects in that we knew there was a 99% chance he was going to finish it off. It was an incredible day."
Wiggins said being able to hit the front with a lap to go was the "dream scenario". "It was like a relay race and we handed on the baton in perfect position each time until the home straight where I was able to give Mark the home stretch. It was phenomenal really," said Wiggins.
"I was always expecting the shit to hit the fan. I was like a dog on a leash who kept being held back to take over the reins with a lap to go. It couldn't have gone better really."
Displaying the focus that has been a feature of the evolution of British Cycling over the past decade, Wiggins said home advantage would not be a factor.
"It could be in Baghdad or anywhere it shouldn't change the performance in that velodrome," he said. "I haven't seen the velodrome, I don't really want to see it. That sounds dull but I don't want it to have any bearing or impetus on it. It shouldn't change the performance that day because the crowd's made up of more Brits or your family is there."
? Cyclist believes unprecedented double next summer is possible
? 'Golds haven't changed my life but the Tour certainly would'
Bradley Wiggins is targeting both the Tour de France yellow jersey and Olympic gold next summer and believes British Cycling will decide in the next few weeks which events he should target at the London Games.
Fresh from winning silver in the world time trial in Copenhagen and helping Mark Cavendish to gold in the road race, Wiggins said he believes more strongly than ever that securing an unprecedented double is possible.
"I've done the Olympics, this will be my fourth, I've been there and got the golds. They haven't changed my life but winning the Tour would certainly change my life," he said. "Winning gold on the back of winning the Tour would certainly change my life and perhaps put me into a different bracket as an athlete."
Wiggins said it was the prospect of combining a serious challenge in the Tour, in which he finished fourth in 2009 but had to withdraw with a broken collarbone this year, with an Olympic challenge that had fired his enthusiasm for the Games.
"It's never been done so I think if I wasn't doing the tour next year and I was just going back to do the team pursuit and I had the winter to look forward to of going back on the track, the World Cups, the world championships in March and all that it wouldn't excite me at all," said the six-times Olympic medallist.
"I would really not be looking forward to it. The only way I'd ever do the track now is by coming back off the road. It's got to excite you to be able to do it."
The Team Sky rider ? who has three Olympic golds, a silver and two bronzes in his collection ? said he saw winning the Tour and securing a medal at the Games, which starts days after the Champs-Elysées finish to the Tour, as two halves of the same challenge.
"As crazy as it sounds to everyone, I don't see it as compromising one for the other. That's what I want to do ? it's not a case of justifying why I'm doing it either," said Wiggins. "This is what I want to do, follow me and see what the results are and we'll talk about it afterwards. I'm doing it."
He said completing the Tour of Spain after breaking his collarbone and completing "the time trial of my life" at the world championships proved he could compete in both disciplines.
Wiggins said that given the choice he would compete in "everything" at the Olympics but he is likely to target the team pursuit on the track over the time trial on the road. "I'll ride the event I've got most chance of winning gold in and at this stage that will probably be the team pursuit, I imagine," he said. He said his coach, Shane Sutton, and others at British Cycling had "probably" already made the decision and expected to hear in "the next few weeks".
Wiggins, who set Cavendish up for his momentous victory on the final lap, hailed a "fantastic team performance" that helped the Manx rider to gold.
"Our plan worked perfectly. We always knew if we got him to that finish straight he'd be the fastest rider there. That's part of the belief the whole team had, that's why there was such commitment from everyone because knew Mark was going to finish it off," he said. "It's like a football team with the best striker in the world. Our job was quite easy in some respects in that we knew there was a 99% chance he was going to finish it off. It was an incredible day."
Wiggins said being able to hit the front with a lap to go was the "dream scenario". "It was like a relay race and we handed on the baton in perfect position each time until the home straight where I was able to give Mark the home stretch. It was phenomenal really," said Wiggins.
"I was always expecting the shit to hit the fan. I was like a dog on a leash who kept being held back to take over the reins with a lap to go. It couldn't have gone better really."
Displaying the focus that has been a feature of the evolution of British Cycling over the past decade, Wiggins said home advantage would not be a factor.
"It could be in Baghdad or anywhere it shouldn't change the performance in that velodrome," he said. "I haven't seen the velodrome, I don't really want to see it. That sounds dull but I don't want it to have any bearing or impetus on it. It shouldn't change the performance that day because the crowd's made up of more Brits or your family is there."
The British cyclist and his team-mates are attending to the small differences to gain an advantage over their rivals
It is a detail you could be forgiven for missing in the excitement of the race but the black helmet in which Mark Cavendish won the world championship on Sunday was carefully customised, its ventilation holes covered with thin plastic. Result: better aerodynamics, saving a handful of the watts in which cyclists measure their power.
He was wearing a one-piece skinsuit, too. So were the other seven members of the Great Britain team, including one veteran who had to be coaxed into the unfamiliar garment after a career in jerseys and shorts. Result: once again, a reduction in the effort required for eight men to cut through the air while travelling in line astern at 55kph.
And maybe you didn't spot the boards held out to the riders at three points around the circuit, providing information to David Millar, the team's road captain, in the absence of radio earpieces, which are banned at the world championships. They are forbidden at the Olympics, too, making this a useful trial run for 2012.
Three years after their triumphs in the Beijing velodrome introduced the phrase "aggregation of marginal gains" to the sporting lexicon, Britain's cyclists are still looking for anything that will give them a legitimate advantage. No one else was wearing a skinsuit in Copenhagen on Sunday. No one, as far as one could see, had attempted to improve the performance of his helmet. No team was using such a thorough signalling system.
When British teams win big, like England's rugby men in 2003 or the cricketers two years later, they tend to grow complacent. The cyclists, by contrast, take each success as a cue to reset their sights, and whatever one thinks of Sky's millions being pumped into British cycling, the relationship enabled Dave Brailsford to move on from the Olympics by unveiling new ambitions.
To start a road team was to court humiliation, particularly when Brailsford promised to produce a British winner of the Tour de France within five years. There was ridicule when Bradley Wiggins, touted as potentially Britain's first winner, struggled to 24th place in 2010. But look at the results in this, their second season: stage wins in the Tour Down Under, the Tour of Oman, the Tour of California, the Vuelta a España and the Tour de France, a podium place in Paris-Nice, overall victories in the Bayern-Rundfahrt and the Critérium du Dauphiné, and second and third in the Vuelta. Firm foundations are being laid.
Cavendish's switch to Team Sky for next season now seems to depend only on the fine print and a possible conflict between his interests and those of Wiggins will be easily solved, at least for a year. His target for 2012 will be the Olympic road race, which is scheduled for 28 July, the first Saturday of the Games, only six days after the end of the Tour de France. With the added significance of offering Britain an early gold, it will be a tough test for a pure sprinter and to give himself the best chance of a win he will have to sacrifice most or perhaps all of the Tour, meaning that there will be no fourth consecutive glory dash up the Champs-Elysées.
Wiggins will concentrate on leading Team Sky in a third assault on the Tour, followed by either the Olympic time trial or the team pursuit ? probably the latter, since Tony Martin of Germany finished more than a minute ahead of him last week in a time trial of comparable length. That will make him unavailable to help tow Cavendish up nine ascents of Box Hill, while Millar's participation depends on the consequences of the US Olympic Committee's forthcoming appeal against the ban on the runner LaShawn Merritt, who like Millar has served a doping ban. Olympic s also mean that Cavendish will have only four team-mates in London, as opposed to seven in Denmark.
But after Sunday, who would bet against him? As in Bordeaux and Paris a year ago, he showed that although the team structure is vital to what he does, he is also fully capable of responding to an emergency by seizing the initiative. Once again, with the stakes at their highest, a British cyclist had found a way to win.
It may have been the most straightforward piece of tinkering Claudio Ranieri has ever undertaken. Called in to become Massimo Moratti's fourth head coach at Internazionale since the departure of José Mourinho to Real Madrid two years ago, and to end a run of four defeats and one draw since the start of the season, Ranieri did the obvious by replacing his predecessor's disastrous three-man defence with a standard back four. Immediate result? Saturday's 3-1 win at Bologna.
We are living through a time in which, thanks to such commentators as Jonathan Wilson and the Zonal Marking website, tactics and formations exist in unusual variety and are widely and endlessly discussed.
So when Fabio Capello stumbles upon a functioning 4-2-3-1 for England against Bulgaria but then switches back to a sterile 4-4-2 against Wales, everyone notices. In recent weeks a handful of teams, among them Antonio Conte's Juventus, have been using the sort of authentic 4-2-4 not witnessed since the Brazilians of 1958. The Tinkerman Ranieri's intervention showed that however much we revere the individual genius of the Messis, the Rooneys and the Silvas, such considerations are, for good or ill, the basis of modern football.
It is possible that the discord between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa has its origin in the last race of the 2008 season, when the Brazilian spent half a minute believing that he had become world champion in front of his home crowd in São Paulo, only for the Englishman to dash the cup from his lips. The sight of a Ferrari mechanic headbutting the garage wall captured an anguish that Massa must have felt many times over.
A couple of incidents this season, provoked by Hamilton's waywardness, fanned the embers of their mutual disregard and following Sunday's race in Singapore, push came to shove off as well as on the track. Such behaviour is only possible when the drivers are no longer conscious of risking their own and each other's lives. They both need to get a grip.
richard.williams@guardian.co.uk
The British cyclist and his team-mates are attending to the small differences to gain an advantage over their rivals
It is a detail you could be forgiven for missing in the excitement of the race but the black helmet in which Mark Cavendish won the world championship on Sunday was carefully customised, its ventilation holes covered with thin plastic. Result: better aerodynamics, saving a handful of the watts in which cyclists measure their power.
He was wearing a one-piece skinsuit, too. So were the other seven members of the Great Britain team, including one veteran who had to be coaxed into the unfamiliar garment after a career in jerseys and shorts. Result: once again, a reduction in the effort required for eight men to cut through the air while travelling in line astern at 55kph.
And maybe you didn't spot the boards held out to the riders at three points around the circuit, providing information to David Millar, the team's road captain, in the absence of radio earpieces, which are banned at the world championships. They are forbidden at the Olympics, too, making this a useful trial run for 2012.
Three years after their triumphs in the Beijing velodrome introduced the phrase "aggregation of marginal gains" to the sporting lexicon, Britain's cyclists are still looking for anything that will give them a legitimate advantage. No one else was wearing a skinsuit in Copenhagen on Sunday. No one, as far as one could see, had attempted to improve the performance of his helmet. No team was using such a thorough signalling system.
When British teams win big, like England's rugby men in 2003 or the cricketers two years later, they tend to grow complacent. The cyclists, by contrast, take each success as a cue to reset their sights, and whatever one thinks of Sky's millions being pumped into British cycling, the relationship enabled Dave Brailsford to move on from the Olympics by unveiling new ambitions.
To start a road team was to court humiliation, particularly when Brailsford promised to produce a British winner of the Tour de France within five years. There was ridicule when Bradley Wiggins, touted as potentially Britain's first winner, struggled to 24th place in 2010. But look at the results in this, their second season: stage wins in the Tour Down Under, the Tour of Oman, the Tour of California, the Vuelta a España and the Tour de France, a podium place in Paris-Nice, overall victories in the Bayern-Rundfahrt and the Critérium du Dauphiné, and second and third in the Vuelta. Firm foundations are being laid.
Cavendish's switch to Team Sky for next season now seems to depend only on the fine print and a possible conflict between his interests and those of Wiggins will be easily solved, at least for a year. His target for 2012 will be the Olympic road race, which is scheduled for 28 July, the first Saturday of the Games, only six days after the end of the Tour de France. With the added significance of offering Britain an early gold, it will be a tough test for a pure sprinter and to give himself the best chance of a win he will have to sacrifice most or perhaps all of the Tour, meaning that there will be no fourth consecutive glory dash up the Champs-Elysées.
Wiggins will concentrate on leading Team Sky in a third assault on the Tour, followed by either the Olympic time trial or the team pursuit ? probably the latter, since Tony Martin of Germany finished more than a minute ahead of him last week in a time trial of comparable length. That will make him unavailable to help tow Cavendish up nine ascents of Box Hill, while Millar's participation depends on the consequences of the US Olympic Committee's forthcoming appeal against the ban on the runner LaShawn Merritt, who like Millar has served a doping ban. Olympic s also mean that Cavendish will have only four team-mates in London, as opposed to seven in Denmark.
But after Sunday, who would bet against him? As in Bordeaux and Paris a year ago, he showed that although the team structure is vital to what he does, he is also fully capable of responding to an emergency by seizing the initiative. Once again, with the stakes at their highest, a British cyclist had found a way to win.
It may have been the most straightforward piece of tinkering Claudio Ranieri has ever undertaken. Called in to become Massimo Moratti's fourth head coach at Internazionale since the departure of José Mourinho to Real Madrid two years ago, and to end a run of four defeats and one draw since the start of the season, Ranieri did the obvious by replacing his predecessor's disastrous three-man defence with a standard back four. Immediate result? Saturday's 3-1 win at Bologna.
We are living through a time in which, thanks to such commentators as Jonathan Wilson and the Zonal Marking website, tactics and formations exist in unusual variety and are widely and endlessly discussed.
So when Fabio Capello stumbles upon a functioning 4-2-3-1 for England against Bulgaria but then switches back to a sterile 4-4-2 against Wales, everyone notices. In recent weeks a handful of teams, among them Antonio Conte's Juventus, have been using the sort of authentic 4-2-4 not witnessed since the Brazilians of 1958. The Tinkerman Ranieri's intervention showed that however much we revere the individual genius of the Messis, the Rooneys and the Silvas, such considerations are, for good or ill, the basis of modern football.
It is possible that the discord between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa has its origin in the last race of the 2008 season, when the Brazilian spent half a minute believing that he had become world champion in front of his home crowd in São Paulo, only for the Englishman to dash the cup from his lips. The sight of a Ferrari mechanic headbutting the garage wall captured an anguish that Massa must have felt many times over.
A couple of incidents this season, provoked by Hamilton's waywardness, fanned the embers of their mutual disregard and following Sunday's race in Singapore, push came to shove off as well as on the track. Such behaviour is only possible when the drivers are no longer conscious of risking their own and each other's lives. They both need to get a grip.
richard.williams@guardian.co.uk
? 'He wants to come ... I'm pretty sure of it,' says Thomas
? 'To be leading out the world champion would be really special'
Mark Cavendish's world championship win may have cemented his move to Team Sky, according to his Great Britain team-mate Geraint Thomas.
Cavendish became only the second Briton ? and the first for almost half a century ? to don the coveted rainbow jersey after producing a trademark surge to victory in Copenhagen.
Thomas was a key part of the eight-strong unit which shepherded Cavendish to victory and which was made up mainly of Team Sky riders, whom it appears Cavendish is closer than ever to joining permanently.
"He's obviously been talking to them," Thomas said after partying with the new world champion until 5.30am. "He wants to come, I think ? I'm pretty sure of it. Most of us there yesterday are in Sky and good mates of Cav.
"To be leading out the world champion next year would be really special. I don't think he really needs telling how good it'd be."
Thomas admitted he, Cavendish and the rest of the team celebrated the win with more than "a few beers".
"We were in the hotel lobby until about half five in the morning, so quite a late one," the Welshman added. "I definitely wasn't singing, not that I remember anyway. It was just one big party really. It was a pretty special day. It was just amazing to be part of that."
Despite the lack of personal glory, Thomas insisted that being involved in Cavendish's triumph felt better than winning Olympic team pursuit gold in Beijing three years ago.
He added: "It was the perfect day, really. It's the most historic win so far that I've been a part of. I read this morning it was 46 years since we last won the worlds.
"We were just so strong as a unit and I think [the win] really showed how far we've come. Even three years ago, we wouldn't have been able to put a strong [team of] eight riders in, let alone ride the way we did. And for Cav to finish it off like he did was just amazing."
Cavendish will now be favourite to join Thomas as an Olympic champion when he goes for gold at next summer's Games.
Victory in London would add weight to the argument that he is already the greatest sprinter of all time, with the 26-year-old having won 20 stages in just five Tour de France appearances as well as the green jersey at this year's event.
Thomas said: "He also won the Milan-San Remo, which is the biggest sprinter classic. He's one of the best sprinters ? if not the best ? ever."
? 'He wants to come ... I'm pretty sure of it,' says Thomas
? 'To be leading out the world champion would be really special'
Mark Cavendish's world championship win may have cemented his move to Team Sky, according to his Great Britain team-mate Geraint Thomas.
Cavendish became only the second Briton ? and the first for almost half a century ? to don the coveted rainbow jersey after producing a trademark surge to victory in Copenhagen.
Thomas was a key part of the eight-strong unit which shepherded Cavendish to victory and which was made up mainly of Team Sky riders, whom it appears Cavendish is closer than ever to joining permanently.
"He's obviously been talking to them," Thomas said after partying with the new world champion until 5.30am. "He wants to come, I think ? I'm pretty sure of it. Most of us there yesterday are in Sky and good mates of Cav.
"To be leading out the world champion next year would be really special. I don't think he really needs telling how good it'd be."
Thomas admitted he, Cavendish and the rest of the team celebrated the win with more than "a few beers".
"We were in the hotel lobby until about half five in the morning, so quite a late one," the Welshman added. "I definitely wasn't singing, not that I remember anyway. It was just one big party really. It was a pretty special day. It was just amazing to be part of that."
Despite the lack of personal glory, Thomas insisted that being involved in Cavendish's triumph felt better than winning Olympic team pursuit gold in Beijing three years ago.
He added: "It was the perfect day, really. It's the most historic win so far that I've been a part of. I read this morning it was 46 years since we last won the worlds.
"We were just so strong as a unit and I think [the win] really showed how far we've come. Even three years ago, we wouldn't have been able to put a strong [team of] eight riders in, let alone ride the way we did. And for Cav to finish it off like he did was just amazing."
Cavendish will now be favourite to join Thomas as an Olympic champion when he goes for gold at next summer's Games.
Victory in London would add weight to the argument that he is already the greatest sprinter of all time, with the 26-year-old having won 20 stages in just five Tour de France appearances as well as the green jersey at this year's event.
Thomas said: "He also won the Milan-San Remo, which is the biggest sprinter classic. He's one of the best sprinters ? if not the best ? ever."
Mark Cavendish has pulled off something so exceptional that it must finally cement his position in the British sporting pantheon
"We've established Great Britain as the dominant force in world cycling," Mark Cavendish said on Sunday night, an hour after his historic achievement of becoming world champion in the men's road race outside Copenhagen. His triumph was yet more evidence of the slow, steady but apparently unstoppable progress made in the two decades since Chris Boardman won Olympic gold in the Barcelona velodrome.
Graeme Obree, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy, Nicole Cooke, Emma Pooley, Victoria Pendleton and Rebecca Romero are some of the riders whose feats have helped to fuel Britain's cycling boom, which saw a couple of million spectators lining the streets for the Tour de France in London four years ago and has made bike shops around the country virtually recession?proof. Now Cavendish, who cruelly missed out on glory in the Beijing Olympics, has pulled off something so exceptional that it must finally cement his position in the British sporting pantheon.
As if 20 Tour stage wins (including three on the Champs-Elysées), the green jersey, stage wins in the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España, the Vuelta's points jersey and victory in the Milan-San Remo classic two years ago were not enough, Cavendish still found himself, only a few weeks ago, sitting on a breakfast TV sofa and being asked if he rode his bike to the shops. They will have to take him seriously now.
The rainbow jersey of the road?race champion is properly venerated in the old cycling nations of Italy, France, Belgium Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. It has never meant a great deal to the British public, whose appreciation of cycling is largely limited to the great French race that wends its way around the favoured holiday landmarks of Brittany, Provence and the Languedoc. Among Britain's men, only Tom Simpson had previously won it, in 1965, two years before his death. The women have done better: the great Beryl Burton won it twice, in 1960 and 1967, and Mandy Jones captured it on home turf at Goodwood in 1982. Then came Cooke, whose success in 2008 followed her Olympic gold medal.
Now, given the sport's greater visibility, perhaps the public will come to recognise that nothing, not even a yellow jersey in Paris, stands higher among cycling's achievements than a race rendered unusually demanding by its length, by the division of the riders into national rather than trade teams (and the horsetrading that sometimes results from that unfamiliar arrangement), and by an all-or-nothing commitment that pervades the day.
It took remarkable planning and phenomenal devotion ? hallmarks of British Cycling under Peter Keen and Dave Brailsford ? to win Sunday's race. "Even three years ago we'd have struggled to put in such a strong squad," Geraint Thomas said afterwards. "We could easily have sat back and ambled a bit and let the other teams ride but this was our race and we wanted to give it everything."
The key, for more than 200km, was using Chris Froome and Steve Cummings to ride at the front of the peloton, keeping the tempo high but ignoring the temptation to chase breaks by the seven men who went off early and eventually opened a gap of eight minutes, or by the half-dozen who followed them up the road with 150km to go. With David Millar as their road captain, the British riders remained patient and resolute.
They had hoped for the assistance of other teams interested in ensuring that the race would finish with a bunch sprint but only Germany came forward on the day. Bert Grabsch and Andreas Klier worked hard in the first half of the race but by the time the race entered its final stages the British riders were being forced to sail under their own steam. "We thought: 'We'll do it alone if we have to,'" Millar said, and a fine sight it was as seven of them lined out at the head of the peloton, sucking power from their rivals' legs.
Individual attacks in the closing laps from the likes of Giovanni Visconti and Thomas Voeckler were ground to dust by the British machine. Only the denouement remained uncertain, until the last shred of doubt was removed by Cavendish's blistering pace over the final 200m.
"We were only worried that we might run out of bodies," Cavendish said. "You can only sit there and hope that the guys are going to ride out of their skins, and that's what they did. Bradley Wiggins won the silver medal in the time trial on Wednesday but he rode the whole of the last lap on the front."
Wiggins had warned that, if Cavendish really wanted to win, he was going to have to produce the sort of performance with which he won Milan-San Remo ? "the ride of his life". Cavendish obliged and for this pair the triumph perhaps represented a final rapprochement after their very public falling-out during the 2008 Olympics, when Cavendish stormed empty-handed away from the velodrome in the belief that Wiggins, already with two Beijing golds in his baggage, had let him down in the two?man Madison event.
No one let anyone down on Sunday. "It was daunting," Millar said, "but everybody did their job even more than we expected." The Scot had been sharing a room with Cavendish in the team hotel. "What can you say about Cav? He's a funny little bastard. We've watched every race together in our room and every time we've watched a finish he's been off his bed, shouting: 'I promise I'm going to win on Sunday.'" The most impulsive and emotional of men but the most cold-blooded of athletes when the fires of competition are at their fiercest, Cavendish would be keeping his end of the bargain.
Cavendish's domination The world champion won five Tour de France stages and the green jersey and triumphed on three Giro stages
Six medals in Copenhagen Bradley Wiggins won silver in the men's time trial, Emma Pooley bronze in the women's TT. Lucy Garner, Elinor Barker and Andrew Fenn won junior medals
Success at the Vuelta a España Chris Froome and Wiggins became the second and third Britons to finish on the podium of a grand tour
Gold on the track in Apeldoorn The women's team pursuit victory at the world championships was one of nine medals
Mark Cavendish has pulled off something so exceptional that it must finally cement his position in the British sporting pantheon
"We've established Great Britain as the dominant force in world cycling," Mark Cavendish said on Sunday night, an hour after his historic achievement of becoming world champion in the men's road race outside Copenhagen. His triumph was yet more evidence of the slow, steady but apparently unstoppable progress made in the two decades since Chris Boardman won Olympic gold in the Barcelona velodrome.
Graeme Obree, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy, Nicole Cooke, Emma Pooley, Victoria Pendleton and Rebecca Romero are some of the riders whose feats have helped to fuel Britain's cycling boom, which saw a couple of million spectators lining the streets for the Tour de France in London four years ago and has made bike shops around the country virtually recession?proof. Now Cavendish, who cruelly missed out on glory in the Beijing Olympics, has pulled off something so exceptional that it must finally cement his position in the British sporting pantheon.
As if 20 Tour stage wins (including three on the Champs-Elysées), the green jersey, stage wins in the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España, the Vuelta's points jersey and victory in the Milan-San Remo classic two years ago were not enough, Cavendish still found himself, only a few weeks ago, sitting on a breakfast TV sofa and being asked if he rode his bike to the shops. They will have to take him seriously now.
The rainbow jersey of the road?race champion is properly venerated in the old cycling nations of Italy, France, Belgium Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. It has never meant a great deal to the British public, whose appreciation of cycling is largely limited to the great French race that wends its way around the favoured holiday landmarks of Brittany, Provence and the Languedoc. Among Britain's men, only Tom Simpson had previously won it, in 1965, two years before his death. The women have done better: the great Beryl Burton won it twice, in 1960 and 1967, and Mandy Jones captured it on home turf at Goodwood in 1982. Then came Cooke, whose success in 2008 followed her Olympic gold medal.
Now, given the sport's greater visibility, perhaps the public will come to recognise that nothing, not even a yellow jersey in Paris, stands higher among cycling's achievements than a race rendered unusually demanding by its length, by the division of the riders into national rather than trade teams (and the horsetrading that sometimes results from that unfamiliar arrangement), and by an all-or-nothing commitment that pervades the day.
It took remarkable planning and phenomenal devotion ? hallmarks of British Cycling under Peter Keen and Dave Brailsford ? to win Sunday's race. "Even three years ago we'd have struggled to put in such a strong squad," Geraint Thomas said afterwards. "We could easily have sat back and ambled a bit and let the other teams ride but this was our race and we wanted to give it everything."
The key, for more than 200km, was using Chris Froome and Steve Cummings to ride at the front of the peloton, keeping the tempo high but ignoring the temptation to chase breaks by the seven men who went off early and eventually opened a gap of eight minutes, or by the half-dozen who followed them up the road with 150km to go. With David Millar as their road captain, the British riders remained patient and resolute.
They had hoped for the assistance of other teams interested in ensuring that the race would finish with a bunch sprint but only Germany came forward on the day. Bert Grabsch and Andreas Klier worked hard in the first half of the race but by the time the race entered its final stages the British riders were being forced to sail under their own steam. "We thought: 'We'll do it alone if we have to,'" Millar said, and a fine sight it was as seven of them lined out at the head of the peloton, sucking power from their rivals' legs.
Individual attacks in the closing laps from the likes of Giovanni Visconti and Thomas Voeckler were ground to dust by the British machine. Only the denouement remained uncertain, until the last shred of doubt was removed by Cavendish's blistering pace over the final 200m.
"We were only worried that we might run out of bodies," Cavendish said. "You can only sit there and hope that the guys are going to ride out of their skins, and that's what they did. Bradley Wiggins won the silver medal in the time trial on Wednesday but he rode the whole of the last lap on the front."
Wiggins had warned that, if Cavendish really wanted to win, he was going to have to produce the sort of performance with which he won Milan-San Remo ? "the ride of his life". Cavendish obliged and for this pair the triumph perhaps represented a final rapprochement after their very public falling-out during the 2008 Olympics, when Cavendish stormed empty-handed away from the velodrome in the belief that Wiggins, already with two Beijing golds in his baggage, had let him down in the two?man Madison event.
No one let anyone down on Sunday. "It was daunting," Millar said, "but everybody did their job even more than we expected." The Scot had been sharing a room with Cavendish in the team hotel. "What can you say about Cav? He's a funny little bastard. We've watched every race together in our room and every time we've watched a finish he's been off his bed, shouting: 'I promise I'm going to win on Sunday.'" The most impulsive and emotional of men but the most cold-blooded of athletes when the fires of competition are at their fiercest, Cavendish would be keeping his end of the bargain.
Cavendish's domination The world champion won five Tour de France stages and the green jersey and triumphed on three Giro stages
Six medals in Copenhagen Bradley Wiggins won silver in the men's time trial, Emma Pooley bronze in the women's TT. Lucy Garner, Elinor Barker and Andrew Fenn won junior medals
Success at the Vuelta a España Chris Froome and Wiggins became the second and third Britons to finish on the podium of a grand tour
Gold on the track in Apeldoorn The women's team pursuit victory at the world championships was one of nine medals