Friday 20th August

We make our way to the velodrome at the main Olympic Centre and find that we are seated next to a group of Australians. The aussies are also very competitive in this arena. Jason Queally won Gold for Britain in the time trial in Sydney four years ago and his successor, Chris Hoy, is current world champion so our hopes are high that we will see a repeat performance.

Cycling - Men Individual Pursuit Qualifying

In the first heat, Volodymyr Dyudya, of Ukriane, breaks the Olympic Record, with a time of 4:18.169.

This is still the fastest time when we get to heat six and the first of the British riders. Bradley Wiggins races against Australian Luke Roberts, so there’s a little bit of good-humoured rivalry in the crowd too. Wiggins leads from start to finish, but his split-times are behind those set earlier, by Dyudya, until the 3000m point. When the scoreboard shows that Wiggins is ahead by 0.484 the decibel level increases markedly. Wiggins goes on to record the fastest time, and take the Olympic Record, whilst Roberts is third overall. Both will qualify as there are only four more riders to come.

Heat seven sees Briton Rob Hayles up against the Olympic champion, Robert Bartko of Germany. Both riders start slowly, but are in third and fourth overall with 1000m to go. As they cross the finish line Hayles has moved up to second, with Bartko remaining in fourth. The final heat sees the World Champion, Sergi Escobar of Spain, paired with the Commonwealth Champion, Brad McGee, of Australia. This should be interesting and Wiggins new Olympic Record is likely to be under threat. After the first 1000m, Escobar is in second, but McGee is in sixth. After 2000m, McGee has moved up to fourth overall and both riders remain in those position at 3000m. At the finish line, neither rider has been able to influence Wiggins’ top spot, but McGee has moved ahead of Hayles overall.

The first event at the Velodrome has seen both Britons reach the knockout stage, later in the evening.

But before that, there’s medals to be won.

Cycling – Men’s 500K Time Trial

Britain’s Victoria Pendleton went off fifth of twelve. As expected she came through to be fastest. Amazingly, the next two riders were both slower and it seemed that she might have the chance of a medal. However, the last five riders all recorded faster times.

World Champion, Anna Meares of Australia won gold in a new World Record time of 53.016. Previous record holder Yonghua Jiang (China) took Silver, with 2002 and 2003 World Champion Natallia Tsylinskaya (Belarus) winning Bronze.

Cycling – Men’s 1K Time Trial

The early stages of the men’s competition went more or less as expected.

Things hotted up when Australian Shane Kelly, the thirteenth of seventeen riders, completed his ride in a new Olympic Record time of 1:01.224. Next up was Germany's Stefan Nimke, who although slower in the earlier section, had a quicker split time at 750m and then headed the field wiith three riders to go.

The dutchman Theo Bos, was fifteen onto the track. He was a long way behind at each stage but had a fast last 250m to come in third with two to go.

France's world record holder Arnaud Tournant was fastest at every split time and took the lead with a time of 1:00.896. He was exhausted when he had finished and collapsed onto the track, directly in front of us.

The pressure was then Britain's Chris Hoy. He needed to better the Olympic Record in order to claim the gold. At the first split time, the double World champion was 0.073 seconds ahead, which had increased to 0.141 at the half way stage. But, at 750m, the gap was down to 0.071, and we held our breath as he completed the last section. We needn’t have worried. The scot won in a new Olympic Record time of 1:00.711.

The medal presentation occurred almost immediately. When the cyclists had received their medals, we sang “God Save the Queen” as the flag was raised through the centre of the arena. Julie and the girls went down to the barrier to wave their flags as the winners turned to acknowledge the crowd.

Chris Hoy had won gold and had achieved our desire of seeing the Union Jack raised in the centre position at an Olympic Games! At that moment the two years of planning had come to fruition, and we were very happy.

Cycling – Men’s Individual Pursuit First Round

The final races of the day would determine who would be competing for the medals on the next day.

First up was Volodymyr Dyudya (Ukraine) against Britain’s Rob Hayles. After the first 1000m, Dyudya is ahead by 0.322 seconds. At the half-way point the gap has been increased to 1.626 At 3000m, Hayles is ahead by 0.736 and goes on to win by 3.161, in a time of 4:19.559.

In Heat 2, Australian Brad McGee beats German Robert Bartko in 4:17.978 and in Heat 3, Sergi Escobar (Spain) beats Luke Ronberts (Australia) in 4:19.581.

The final heat sees Britain’s Bradley Wiggins face Fabien Sanchez of France. He leads from start to finish (split gaps of 0.333, 0.992, 2.791, 4.020) to record the fastest time of the session (4:17.215).

The two fastest times (Wiggins and McGee) go into tomorrow’s final with the other two heat winners (Escobar and Hayles) racing for Bronze. On tonight’s performance we could see another British gold tomorrow.