INSTEAD of taking the open-top bus ride through London with his gold-encrusted team, Dave Brailsford chose to speak at the Youth Sport Trust conference. His calculation was a simple one. First, as he stated in Beijing, he is not a great fan of victory parades; second, he knows this is the best time to promote his sport.

While Chris Hoy, the triple gold medallist, continues to enjoy the fruits of his success, the head of British Cycling has taken barely a backward glance in his effort to maintain the momentum built up so spectacularly at the Laoshan track, where the GB cycling team took seven of the 10 track golds.

He has the ear of government in developing a national cycling programme for families. The ambitious concept of launching a GB Tour de France team on New Year’s Day 2010, 01/01/10, remains on course and, all the while, Brailsford has been working to ensure his key staff stay in place until 2012. No wonder he says that, since stepping off the plane from Beijing, he has never worked harder in his life.

“I took my daughter to Sea Life in Birmingham for a day and that’s the only day off I’ve had since coming back,” he says. “It’s actually been a tough time, but enjoyable. We’ve enjoyed watching the riders - Chris [Hoy], Bradley [Wiggins] and Victoria [Pendleton] - enjoying themselves because they deserve every minute of the attention.”

The opening world cup meeting of the track season, in Manchester this weekend, will provide a welcome respite for Brailsford and his team, a chance to get back to the normal rhythms of a bike meeting. The event will serve a double purpose for the GB squad, now the standard-bearers for sporting excellence. On the one hand, their core fans can give the squad a proper homecoming; on the other, there is a chance for the potential gatecrashers at the London Olympics to give notice to their elders.

Too often, the seeds of failure are sown in the very moment of success. Brailsford was sure several of his coaches were made lucrative offers in Beijing. His immediate objective back in Manchester, he said, was to guarantee his coaches and senior management team - Steve Peters, Chris Boardman and Shane Sutton - remained true to the cause. Some talked to him openly, others were more private. But all have signed up to another four years in the trenches.

Brailsford, too, had to search his conscience and find what mattered most to him, success or financial reward. “We went as a team and we stay as a team. There was a very real threat that the whole thing might disintegrate. It’s flattering to be offered new things. It’s equally flattering that they’ve chosen to stay. We’re at the start of something, not the end.

“This world cup will focus everyone’s attention again on the day job. I’ve been asked a lot about the dangers of burnout. It’s got to be watched. But we have close working relationships with all the riders. If there are any signs of burnout, I’m pretty sure they’d be spotted.”

The difficult trick is to let the senior riders choose their moment of reentry without compromising the motivation of the squad. Hoy has already stated his intention of continuing to London and is experienced enough to plan his schedule. Wiggins will be riding the Madison in Manchester, courtesy of contractual problems that forced him to pull out of a six-day event.

He could be found on the track at 5.30 one morning last week, being paced by a motorbike. No sign there of post-Athens blues, documented so vividly in his recent autobiography. Other Olympic medallists will also be in the field, including Pendleton, Wendy Houvenaghel, Jason Kenny, Jamie Staff, Geraint Thomas and Chris Newton.

Brailsford is offering no blitz of Olympic magnitude, just 100% effort. “It will be good to return to normality. We’ve become accustomed to winning but where do we go from here? We can’t just press the throttle when we want. We’ve stamped our authority on the sport, now we have to continue to do that.”

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