Rarely has one nation dominated a sporting event as much as Britain has done at the track cycling world championships, and in an Olympic year too.
British riders took gold in eight of the 10 Olympic events. Observers said their surprising rise from cycling obscurity reflects the hard work _ and most of all the money _ that has been devoted to the sport by Britain.
"Ten years ago I used to have to report on which British riders had qualified for the first round. The second round was out of the question," said veteran cycling commentator Phil Liggett.
"I've seen these guys work so hard, and now they have the best coaches. The result is that for the moment they have created an unbeatable team. I've only seen this before once, and that was the Australians, who ruled the roost for a few years."
Manchester's velodrome, built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, houses the National Cycling Center _ a center of excellence for all Britain's elite cyclists from juniors to veteran professionals.
"When you see what kind of stuff is on the ground here for British cycling, one twelfth of that would be, like, our team," said U.S. cyclist Sarah Hammer, who lost her individual pursuit crown to Britain's Rebecca Romero.
"They've gotten behind the riders and given them what they need, and the results speak for themselves," Hammer said.
Since 1997, Britain has directly funded a number of its most promising athletes with money raised by the National Lottery, paying them a salary that has allowed them to become professional athletes even in sports that don't offer many opportunities to earn money through competition or advertising.
The programs, especially those supporting young riders, are part of Britain's plan to bring through promising athletes in all sports in time for the London Olympics in 2012. They range from the Olympic Podium program _ for athletes expected to fight for medals in Beijing _ to the Olympic Talent Program, for youngsters aged 14-16.
"What the lottery allows us to do is to bring in the resources to give the athletes the coaching and the support they need," said Shane Sutton, Britain's track team manager and a former Commonwealth Games gold medalist for Australia.
"In the past we had the odd Boardman or Queally," Sutton said, referring to Chris Boardman, the winner of the individual pursuit at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, and Jason Queally, the gold medalist in the 1-kilometer time-trial in Sydney 2000. "But we have so many world champions now it beggars (defies) belief."
Sutton said the British team's philosophy is not to seek out athletes and steer them toward cycling, but to work with those who really want to be cyclists.
"If you get a kid that is picked up through a program, you will get one or two, but when cycling finds them, it isn't the same as them finding cycling."
Sutton said he did not believe the British team had peaked too early.
"This is the world championships. Everybody is on their game. We've come into this with a pretty relaxed philosophy. The support network, the science network behind what we do tell us there is no problem," Sutton said.
"We've got it right now, and we know in a few months we are going to get it right again."
