Resistance is futile: you are about to become a devotee of track cycling. When someone says Madison, you will think of a two-man bike race, not an avenue in New York City. You will start asking friends at parties what they thought of the keirin, as if sprint finishes have been a staple of your life.

Rowing and sailing will throw up stirring victories this weekend but to be at the Laoshan velodrome here yesterday was to be at British sport’s equivalent of 1849 California. It is not too often following British sports teams around the world that you detect invincibility. But as records fell and the men’s team sprinted triumphantly yesterday, we knew that the home track where Britain’s cyclists train is not a gloomy building in Manchester but a gold factory.

With the operation transported to Beijing yesterday, we could have been observing a Formula One pitlane in the well of the velodrome as riders zipped up in skintight suits, assistants polished helmets and mechanics tweaked nuts designed by boffins. But it is raw human power that propels these machines. Yesterday it was the gold-medal thighs of Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Jamie Staff.

We have heard so much about wind tunnels, revolutionary plastic suits and biomechanics that it was a joy to see the human heroes whose faces are normally hidden behind wraparound shades and under Star Wars helmets.

We could see the wobbly lip of Hoy as the national anthem played – that tape is going to get worn - and hear how he had ordered himself not to panic as he found himself a couple of bike lengths adrift of his pacesetters in the final. Up close, we could see muscles that might have been borrowed from a comic-book super-hero.

Then there was Kenny, so youthful that he looks still to have puppy fat although that cannot be the case because he is a powerful Olympic champion. The 20-year-old is perhaps the only Olympic gold medal-winner who has yet to merit a mention on Wikipedia. He looked bemused yesterday, disbelieving of what he had done.

His silences were filled by Staff, a man so in love with his sport that he has a bike crank and chain tattooed on to his calf. He was riding BMXs six years ago, wondering if he could make it to Olympic level. At 35, this was his last shot.

You will be introduced to more of Team GB in the next four days as they break records and plunder gold. Nicole Cooke kicked things off in the road race and she was there in the stands to support yesterday. Emma Pooley followed it up with silver in the time-trial and as many as half a dozen golds could follow on the track.

This is a golden age, and David Brailsford, the director of performance, has already talked of widening horizons to include an assault on the Tour de France. That would put another baguette in the French spokes, to go with yesterday’s victory by Hoy, Staff and Kenny that stole the crown from the world champions.

“It is all down to lottery funding,” Staff said, and it is true that millions of pounds have been made available to improve facilities, recruit psychologists and pay for scientific research into wind resistance. But there is no shop that sells a culture of excellence. “We are world class at every level,” Hoy said after the first gold of what could be a personal hat-trick.

To understand the thrill of yesterday’s team sprint, ask a friend to drive down the road at 40mph while you try to stay within an inch of his back bumper. When two Polish riders clipped wheels in the first race, one spent the next 40 yards wondering if there would be any skin left on his back.

Excellent teamwork in the first heat brought the world record for Team GB, but in the final Staff and Kenny were so pumped up that they raced away from Hoy. “That is how quick they are these days,” the Ben Nevis-sized Scot said. “It was a harder way to do it but you just can’t let your teammates down.”

If there can be a complaint, it was that there were empty seats in the velodrome, which is far enough out to the western outskirts of Beijing that you can even detect greenery. The Chinese have all but written off track cycling and the locals have stayed away. Yesterday, Britain annexed the velodrome and it will be a few days before they hand it back.

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Why didn't they ring me up before they decided to hold the Olympic Games in Beijing in August? Don't do it, I'd have said

Simon Barnes

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