The 20th Commonwealth Games was bookended by its track and road cycling events. London was the last hurrah for the riders who had carried the success of the track programme on the shoulders since the beginning of the last decade. Sir Chris Hoy who would see the track events take place in his eponymously named velodrome had originally planned to retire at the games.
In other words; forget about the results now and look forward to Rio. The cheers for the household names are always the loudest, irrespective of the outcome in their particular event. Hoy had been replaced by the younger Kenny in London, but since he took the Olympic gold his results have been patchy.
In contrast to the emotions shown by some of the home nations medal winners across the Glasgow games Trott had been embroiled in a bit of a social media spat ahead of the games by appearing to downplay the status of the event in comparison to the Olympics. One of the successful elements of the track programme the whole games in fact was the integration of the paralympic events within the schedule. MacLean had been one the very early successes of the GB track programme and his return makes you wonder of Hoy could do something similar in Rio.
Working with the team for barely a week before the games Wiggins seemed happy with a silver medal. As with the sprint the benchmark for success is gold in Rio in two years time. Wiggins is also extremely realistic about what can be achieved, he was similarly sanguine about his silver medal in last years world championship time trial defeat to Tony Martin.
Wiggins missed the individual time trial and road race in Glasgow and offered some thinly veiled thoughts on his road racing future in a wide ranging interview the day after the team pursuit.
