Medal dip no cause for concern, says Clancy, as Team GB plots 2012 haul

The green and gold of Australia owned the top step of the podium at last week’s world championships in Holland, but Yorkshire rider Clancy is confident the team that ruled the world at the Beijing Olympics will do so again at their home Games in London next summer.

The Australians won 11 medals to Britain’s nine last week, with eight of the antipodeans’ haul being gold, and six of those coming in the 10 track events that will make up the Olympic track programme in 16 months.

Britain claimed seven golds in Beijing – one of which was earned by Barnsley’s Clancy and his team pursuit squad – but since then have claimed only six golds in the following three world championships; events which have been dominated by their rivals from Down Under.

The Olympic programme has been redesigned to the frustration of the British squad and they left Apeldoorn at the weekend with just one world title and, despite nine medals overall, their tails between their legs.

With a final world championships to be held in Melbourne just three months ahead of London 2012, the Australian team is understandably buoyed by the bounty taken from the Netherlands, and yet Clancy and the British cycling team are geared towards one goal – further dominance in the Olympic Games.

The 26-year-old said: “We medalled in all the Olympic events bar the omnium so it’s not the end of the world.

“For the Olympic disciplines we’ll be full pelt when the time is right. The British team are focused solely on the Olympic disciplines and we riders have just got to get on with it.

“The medal table (in Holland) is deceptive. The thing about Australia is they’ve done well in a lot of the events that are not Olympic events.

“Britain didn’t have riders in the points and scratch races, for instance. We concentrated on, and are concentrating on, the Olympic events. More than likely we’re not going to be at the world championships next year going at full gas. That will all be saved for London.

“I’m going to be honest, this last week has probably done the Aussies’ confidence no harm at all. The Aussies are closer to where we are but I believe we still just have the edge.

“In terms of the Olympic disciplines, improvement will come. As long as everyone is fit and believes in the programme.

“This time next year, every training session, every pedal stroke, will be geared towards London.”

Despite the understandable single-minded focus, concern among supporters and the media is growing that while British cycling is showing weakness or vulnerability, their rivals will be given an incentive.

Australia have quite clearly closed the gap, while the Belarusian, French and German teams are all capable of overhauling the next Olympic hosts.

Fingers have been pointed at Team Sky, British Cycling’s road team which is run by Beijing mastermind Dave Brailsford.

Clancy’s team-mates in the 2008 Olympic final, Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas, both divide their time between the track and the road with the split jeopardising their hard yards on the velodromes in Manchester and London.

Both are expected to miss next summer’s Tour de France to concentrate on London, but for now, Clancy can understand that questions are being raised.

He said: “In the short term, and this may be a little controversial, it is a hindrance, especially for the team pursuit squad because we don’t have Gez and Brad all the time.

“But they would have been riding for a different road team anyway so it’s not Team Sky’s fault that they are concentrating on the road season. Long term, Team Sky is going to be great for the team pursuit squad because Brad and Gez have got the chance to transform what they’ve learned on the road, onto the track.”

Clancy’s illness on the eve of the championships further weakened the British squad at the world championships.

Flu-like symptoms prevented the Manchester-based speedster helping the team pursuit squad check the progress of the Australian and Russian teams and denied him the opportunity to defend the omnium world title he won so impressively in Denmark 12 months ago.

Losing such a respected rider hindered Britain’s chances and Clancy conceded: “It’s a little bit frustrating, more for me than anything else.

“You can do certain things to prevent illness; use hand gels, avoid people, make sure your food is properly sterilised.

“But you can only do so much – you can’t go walking around in a gas mask. So it was disappointing to lose my world title in the omnium without being there to defend it.

“I’ve made pretty good progress in the omnium over the last few months. I’m not saying I could have won it, but the encouraging thing is if you look at the results from Holland, no one has moved the game on.

“In terms of the team pursuit, in Manchester at the recent Track World Cup meet we had pretty much the Olympic line-up and shaved two and half seconds off our best time, so with that kind of performance we’d have been toe-to-toe with Australia last week.

“Personally, I feel I’m in a good place and in terms of the team, cycling fans don’t need to worry because I don’t think we’re in a bad place at all.”

For Clancy and the rest of the British squad, success last week was not the end game.

His fellow Olympic gold medallist Victoria Pendleton – eight times a world champion – won silver in the team sprint alongside Jessica Varnish in Holland and bronze in the individual sprint.

But she has long insisted she is working on a two-year programme with London in mind, sacrificing speed to build strength to be at her peak in 16 months.

She said: “I’m very confident it was the right decision to make and I spent some time doing some very basic strength work this year. It did take away the speed. I’m very confident that next year what I gain this year will come through. I’ve done it in the past and I can do it again.

“London 2012 is so off the scale it’s hard to get geed up for these events. Everyone’s like ‘This one doesn’t matter, 2012 does’.

“The World Championships doesn’t really change my life, the Olympics could.”

As for the 2012 Games, Clancy has confirmed that the announcement of the Olympic programme means he will be able to compete for two gold medals in both the team pursuit and the omnium, at which Otley’s Lizzie Armitstead is a genuine gold medal contender for the women.

The six-discipline endurance test is only open to one British rider, so there are no guarantees that despite being a former world champion and the winner of a World Cup meet last December, he would be the host nation’s representative, but Clancy said: “Two days of team pursuit, a day of rest, two days of omnium – there’s no reason why I cannot do both.”