Preparation for Euros goes well as Hoy seals third title in Manchester

Hoy, together with Jason Kenny and 41-year-old Jason Queally, saw off a challenge from Ross Edgar, Pete Mitchell and Dave Daniell in the final.

Queally, winner of a gold medal at the Sydney Olympics 10 years ago, is pushing for a place in the British team for 2012 three years after failing to make the cut for Beijing.

And Hoy, who has also won golds in the sprint and keirin this week, is hoping for an even better showing at the European Championships in Holland later this month.

“My performances have been better than I expected bearing in mind that none of us are really fresh,” he said.

“We have a couple of weeks to the Europeans where we will be looking to progress and again you would expect the performances to improve so it’s a really good starting point.

“In terms of the overall plan this is right up there with as good as I could have expected.”

Becky James underlined her emergence as the biggest threat to an Olympic place for the absent Victoria Pendleton with another dominant display in the keirin to win her second national title after Friday’s triumph in the sprint.

“Friday was awesome, I was so happy with the flying sprint,” she said.

“Today I had my head screwed on, I kept my gap and no one wanted to come round so I kept watching and then with a lap and a half to go I just hit it hard and controlled the pace.”

On Saturday, Lizzie Armitstead added gold in the scratch race to her points title with a trademark finishing sprint while Pendleton and Jess Varnish won the women’s team sprint, beating Kayleigh Brogan and Jenny Davis in the final.

Pendleton, who has previously said she expects next year’s Olympics to mark her retirement, confirmed afterwards that this will be her last National Championships.

She has limited her programme this week to just the solitary event, and said: “I felt it was important prior to the Euros to get a solid strength week in so that’s what I’ve done this week, I’ve been in the gym and had a good week.

“I kind of had to look ahead, and think, ‘oh well, maybe it wasn’t the right timing this year for me’. It’s a bit sad really as it’s my last Nationals and I didn’t get to ride it all.”

Asked about her career medal haul from the championships, she added: “It could be something around 30, I don’t actually know.”