Dave Brailsford - Performance Director Reacts to Track Medal Rush

 

March 19 2006

What a night for the Home Nations in the cycling at the Commonwealth Games with Gold Medals for Scotland and the Isle of Man and a silver and bronze for England.

Performance director of Great Britain, Dave Brailsford came out of the Velodrome after the end of the Track programme and spoke to us:

 

"With the lads being over here for such a long time, we had always planned to get an England-Scotland final and as the week has gone on, the pressure on the teams has built up so to get them both there, was fantastic."

"We started really well on the first night despite the big disappointment for Chris Hoy and the second night was always going to be a tough night and the Aussies won their three Golds. So the big crux of this whole meeting was the morning of the Third day and whether we could we fight back because it's not nice sitting there listening to the Australian national anthem being played three times. So we had to lift it and in all fairness, Matt Crampton at 19 one of the youngest riders on the squad came up and did his 10.3 and from that moment on, no-one looked back."

 

Matt Crampton's great qualifying effort lifted the team

"I think it shows the character of the squad and the staff as well. We have a real team ethic where we work together and look after each other and I think that shows through. The Team Sprint was brilliant, and the key thing for me are the two Team events, Team Sprint and Team Pursuit. They were massive results and then you have the results where we see the young lads coming through".

"To see Matthew Crampton doing that last lap quicker than Chris was unbelievable. For Ross to ride 12.9 (team sprint, lap 2), for Cav to win the Scratch, and Geraint getting his bronze, it's a fantastic thing to see. They are a great bunch of riders to work with and we have great staff to making it an even greater team. Victoria also deserves a special mention, because after losing that second leg and getting up in front of an Aussie crowd and turning in that performance is again, unbelievable and is testament to her tenacity and bravery as a person. I think that performance epitomised us at this meeting."

"But, it's not all glory. We took a kicking at Manchester 2002 and we're closing the gap although they still have more strength in depth than we have. Overall though, I think its quantifiable that we are closing the gap so we need to make sure that progression continues to Beijing and 2012."