Great Britain’s Beijing gold rush began on two wheels with Nicole Cooke nine days ago and it is pedal power that promises today to propel Team GB towards a treasure trove they have not savoured for 100 years.

With the team pursuit quartet having secured Britain’s twelfth gold of the Games yesterday, matching the target set by UK Sport with six days of competition still to go, the country’s athletes could go to bed tonight having surpassed the total of 15 golds claimed in Antwerp in 1920. And for two of them, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Hoy, an indelible place in the history books beckons.

Not since London 1908, when Henry Taylor won three events in the swimming pool as most of the rest of the sporting world looked on rather than compete in events such as the 2,000 metres tandem and tug-of-war, has a British athlete secured three Olympic golds in one Games. Yet within minutes this morning, Wiggins - teaming up with Mark Cavendish in the madison - and Hoy, favourite to add the individual sprint title to his tally, could have emulated his achievement.

With Victoria Pendleton expected to win the women’s sprint and Paul Goodison needing to finish no worse than eighth of ten in yachting’s Laser medal race for outright victory, Britain could have amassed 16 golds by the end of the day and strengthened their grip on third place in the medals table, above such powerhouse nations as Australia, Germany and Russia.

As well as the gold medal in the team pursuit yesterday for Ed Clancy, Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas and Wiggins, who set a stunning world record, there was a silver medal in sailing in the men’s 470 class, while David Price, the super-heavyweight boxer, is guaranteed at least a bronze after reaching the semi-finals.

Having set a target of being fourth at London 2012, those in charge of Team GB have every reason to be feeling a bit smug, even if the gold glut is not expected to last all week. The medal heroes will be honoured with a victory parade through London on October 16, it was confirmed yesterday.

It is in the velodrome that serious lottery funding has found its biggest reward. Wiggins and Manning were part of the team pursuit that first won a bronze medal in Sydney in 2000, before improving to silver in Athens and a gold yesterday.

“I said to Paul Manning on the podium, ‘What an eight years it has been,’ ” Wiggins said. “We went nowhere for a few years, just cruising around that four-minute barrier. Then Shane Sutton [the coach] came in and gave us a kick up the a***. Then these two young lads [Clancy and Thomas] came along and added that impetus into the team that we needed.

“I have set out to do this, to win three gold medals, but to actually do it and cross the line is a different matter. Cav [Cavendish] is raring to go. Hopefully, we can finish it off.”

Away from the velodrome and the yachting venue, Tony Jeffries will join Price as a guaranteed boxing medal-winner if he beats Imre Szello, of Hungary, in his light-heavyweight quarter-final. Price said that the weekend’s gold-medal success had proved stimulating. “Seeing the chart in the GB headquarters has been really inspiring,” the Liverpudlian said. “And then you see the league table and it makes you want to do even better.”

Ben Ainslie, who won his third Olympic gold medal, in the Finn class at the weekend, revealed yesterday that he had been bedridden with mumps until only three days before he began the defence of his title.

Beth Tweddle, the world and European gymnastics champion on the uneven bars, narrowly missed out on a medal in the event when she had to settle for fourth place in the National Indoor Stadium. However, questions have been raised over the status of the gold medal-winner, He Kexin, of China, who is widely believed to be under the legal entry age of 16. Her participation in the women’s team event last week also caused controversy.