Great Britain ended 32 years of hurt to become speedway world champions last year - and now they are hungry for more.
The revamped national team capped off a remarkable turnaround, which has been bubbling since being taken under new management in 2018, to win the FIM Speedway of Nations in front of their home crowd in Manchester.
The result was years in the making but still a major shock, particularly given captain Tai Woffinden, a three-time individual world champion, was ruled out after a spectacular crash early in the final.
But young guns Robert Lambert, Dan Bewley and Tom Brennan delivered the goods to defy the odds and give British speedway a timely shot in the arm.
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Nine months on, Woffinden, Lambert and Bewley don their Team GB race suits again as they head to Vojens, Denmark in a quest to defend their crown starting with semi-final two tonight (Thursday) and leading to Saturday's final.
After achieving what few believed was possible last year, they return to action with a new-found confidence they can mix it consistently for gold medals despite being the team to beat.
“There’s going to be a target on our backs,” Lambert admits. “As riders, we’re used to that kind of pressure of people wanting to beat us, so I think the main thing is to approach it the same as last year.
“We’ll be humble about things, take things step by step and not overthink anything. Last year was great, it was the first major gold medal for me and there are fond memories from it.
“It’s good moving forward into this year, knowing we can do it. Last year was such a huge achievement for Team GB, and we’ve been working on it for many years now.
“We’ve been building the stepping stones to success and we were finally able to do it, and doing it on home soil made it an even better night.
“Obviously we’ll always look back fondly on that but at the same time we now need to be focused on the new challenge heading into this year’s Speedway of Nations.”
In many ways, Great Britain head into this year’s tournament looking in much better shape than they were before last year’s winning effort.
Woffinden is back to fitness and has recently found form, Wroclaw teammate Bewley has been thrown into the Grand Prix series and learnt to swim in deep waters.
Lambert, in his second year as a Grand Prix regular, has also made significant strides and feels much more confident on the biggest stage.
“I’m happy about it,” the 24-year-old summarises. “I’d say the season is going OK. It’s not excellent and there’s always room for improvement, but it’s not going badly either.
“If I can consistently keep at this level then I’ll be happy. I’ve got good confidence in myself going into this, probably a little bit more so than last year.
“It was a tough year for me in the Grand Prix’s, a hard year mentally, but this year I think I’ve found my feet a bit more and go in with a little bit more confidence.
“I’ve been consistent in the Grand Prix’s and I think that’s important. From the outside looking in, that looks good and reflects well on me as a rider.
“As I said, it was definitely tough last year in my first full season in the Grand Prix’s but this year I definitely feel I belong.
“I got the wildcard last year which was great, but I just want to show the organisers it was worth giving me the opportunity and qualify in my own right for next year’s series.”
Whilst the Brits do not have the blessing of home advantage this time around, Lambert believes a late switch of venue and the fact they must race in semi-final two tonight (Friday) will work to their advantage with hosts Denmark handed a free passage to Saturday’s final.
He says: “Vojens is a track I’ve been to a few times now, so it’s somewhere I’ve got more experience on than Esbjerg which isn’t a bad thing.
“It’s a bit like a British track which is good for us, a slight advantage, and we’re all looking forward to it.
“I think there’s a slight advantage for us over the Danes as well, with them going straight into the final as hosts and us getting that semi-final to see how the track is riding and hopefully build some confidence.”
The Speedway of Nations final starts at 5.30pm on Saturday 30th July. Watch all the drama exclusively live on discovery+ and Eurosport
