Pictures of him celebrating victories adorn the walls including a close-up of him with his five gold medals hanging proudly around his neck.

The venue in which the 43 members of Great Britain's rowing team train for Beijing is named the Redgrave Pinsent Lake, after the Steve and Matthew partnership that elevated rowing from a minority sport into one of the country's most successful Olympic disciplines.

Beijing in a month will be the first Olympics without either Redgrave or Pinsent for 28 years.

And the men's four in which they were so dominant, particularly in recent Olympics, is now led by a Yorkshireman.

Click here to read Andy Hodge's exclusive Olympics blog, only available on this website.

"I don't want to be the crew to break the trend," says Skipton-born Andy Hodge, 29, who along with Pete Reed, Steve Williams and Tom James will shoulder the nation's expectations in rowing's flagship event.

"What has happened in the four is a fantastic achievement for GB rowing and for the country itself.

"What we have to take on board is this is now our event, this is our boat, a Pinsent isn't sitting with us and a Redgrave isn't in the boat.

"It is ours to do with as we wish. I'm going to go out there and try to win it.

"I don't want to lose in the Olympics, but that's regardless of whether it was five Olympic gold medals or none – I still want to win."

This is Hodge's second Olympic Games following a dismal experience in Athens when the men's eight brought embarrassment on the team by failing to make the final.

Click the green button to view a video from the rower's Caversham base.

"It was eight guys rowing as well as they could individually, but the bottom line of a big boat like that is you have to have eight guys all doing the same thing in the water," he adds.

Since then Hodge has graduated into the men's four, with the lessons learned in Athens making him a better rower and a better team player.

"These next few weeks have to be done as a unit, have to be done as a crew," he says. "Even if it's not the best that we can do, if we all do it together that will be better than doing it separately.

"You always row to the strength of the weakest person. You're always in some ways – unless you're the weakest person – being held back.

"That's the great thing about rowing. No matter how great you are you have to bring up everybody equally.

"It's the biggest lesson we're learning and hopefully we are making steps to ensure that come August 16 when we race our final, we are the most cohesive unit, aggressive, dynamic, beautiful rowing, racing the best race we could ever perform together."

Where Hodge failed four years ago, Debbie Flood enjoyed relative success.

The 28-year-old Guiseley girl was a silver medallist in the quadruple scull and four years on, after winning the World Championships three years in succession, Olympic gold is now the aim.

"It's not going to be easy, there's some very good competition and once you're on the start line everyone believes they're capable of getting that medal," says Flood.

"It's what we've been aiming at for the last 11 years. It sounds strange, but 11 years goes into this one six-minute race, one chance to get it right.

"This is what we train three times a day for. No weekends, no lie-ins, no time off – this is what we do."

Germany, who pipped Great Britain four years ago, again stand in the way of Olympic glory for Flood and her team.

She said: "Germany have a history in women's rowing, they've never lost a quad race at the Olympics.

"There is competition from China, who beat us in our last race and they've been really strong in the last couple of years. Obviously being on home territory they are going to be out to win the gold medal. The Russians are good, as is the USA boat.

"The expectation is really high and the external pressure is something we're not used to. We went into the last Olympics as a crew that had never won a senior medal.

"We go to Beijing as definite favourites, with people placing expectations on us, but we also place expectations on ourselves.

"That's the whole nature of the Olympics."

The final member of Yorkshire's rowing triumvirate is Carla Ashford who is making her Olympics debut after only three years of competing in the women's eight.

"When I got into the boat in 2005 my main objective was to make it to Beijing," reveals the 29-year-old from Northallerton.

"Everything up until this point has been settling in because there's nothing bigger than the Olympics."

"I want to be the best in the world and the best that I can be, as do all the rest of us.

"We got a bronze medal at the World Championships last year and we've got a realistic chance, but the only pressure on us is the pressure we put on ourselves."