You might want to hang on to your handlebars for this one because I’ve got a prediction for you and it’s very big and it’s very bold. The Olympic track cycling programme begins on Wednesday and I think the GB squad will win a medal in each of the 12 events. It’s going to need some historic and brilliant riding but I am confident this squad can achieve it, with the possibility of more than one medal in some races. I also believe they will win eight gold medals between them and surpass the seven Olympic titles we clinched at London 2012, and the six recorded at both the Rio and Tokyo Games.
I was part of those three squads and we had some supreme competitors – from Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton to Jason Kenny and Katie Archibald. But this current group will light up the Paris Velodrome. I expect GB to win Olympic gold in both the men’s and women’s team pursuit, the women’s Madison and men’s omnium. I’m picking Jack Carlin to win the men’s keirin and Emma Finucane to become a triple Olympic champion in the women’s team sprint, the individual sprint and the keirin.
Emma and I have swapped voice notes because I want to make sure I pronounce her surname with total precision when celebrating her victories. She sent me a recording and I can promise you that I will pronounce Finucane correctly as Emma has spelled it out phonetically for me: Fin-noo-kun. So there you go – now we know for sure.
Emma told me how nervous she’s feeling and I wondered if I had heaped too much pressure on her as I’ve been quite vocal in saying she will win three golds. But then I remembered how proud and inspired I felt when Chris Hoy and Dave Brailsford said in 2012 that I would become a multiple Olympic champion. I had such respect for them that my self-belief rocketed. I’ve told Emma how highly I think of her and I expect her to dominate.
But some of the greatest riders are not always the star names. Josie Knight is the smoothest, best team player I’ve had the privilege of riding with in a pursuit. She’s exceptional. People would say: “Oh, that’s Laura and her team,” but Josie held us together.
In the pursuit you’re like an elastic band being pulled to the point of snapping. So you can’t just be the strongest in the team and forget about everyone else. You need that incredible rider who will get the whole team round because it only takes one little thing to go wrong and someone will pop and you lose them.
Josie is the reason why I think GB will win the team pursuit next week. When you need someone to pull out an epic turn on the bike, Josie’s your girl. She’s so consistent and listens to her teammates all the time. I’ve never seen her split a team or go so hard that we break. She’s got lovely control; watch next week and see how special Josie is on the bike.
I’ve been moved and inspired during this first week in Paris. I thought Adam Peaty spoke amazingly after the 100m breaststroke final. He was tipped to win gold for a third successive Olympics, and lost out by 0.02sec, but he said he wasn’t disappointed and that he had still won a silver medal. I thought that was perfect because I know how hard it is to win any Olympic medal.
It was the same with Tom Daley’s silver in the diving. He and Adam put everything into context and, with both of them being fathers, they now bring such a healthy perspective to elite sport. Seeing Adam go over to hold his little boy was definitely my cutest moment of these Olympics.
Simone Biles has been magnificent and her performance in helping the US win the gymnastics team gold wiped away the adversity she suffered in this same event at the Tokyo Olympics. Three years ago, under immense pressure, Simone’s breakdown was watched by millions around the world. There is such a stark contrast between her desolation then and her uplifting joy now. I love it.
That team victory on Tuesday evening meant I was briefly in very good company with Simone as we had then both won five Olympic golds. But I said she wouldn’t hang around with me for long. Two nights later she won her next gold medal with another series of unforgettable performances as she again became the all-around Olympic gymnastics champion.
Memories of Tokyo underlined how lucky we had been in cycling at those “ghost Games”. We were allowed crowds, and the Japanese are passionate track cycling fans, but so many sports played out in front of empty arenas due to the pandemic. It was sad and surreal to watch track and field athletes do some extraordinary things in a deserted Olympic stadium. I got a taste of that weird and flat atmosphere at the closing ceremony. I was Team GB’s flag-bearer and, apart from the odd security guard and television crew, it felt like no one was there.
The packed crowds in Paris have shown us what we missed – even if I was not happy with the French spectators who booed Tom Pidcock after he came back from a puncture to overtake local favourite Victor Koretzky at the end of a stunning mountain bike race. Tom showed the killer instinct of an Olympic champion with an audacious move and Koretzky accepted it was cold-blooded racing. I knew why the French were booing but I really didn’t like it.
No one booed or cheered me this week when I rode along a few Paris streets on a Brompton bike. I was on my way to see my boys, Albie and Monty, and I thought, ‘Let’s see how fast I can go.’ The answer, in the end, was not very. A Brompton is not the most aerodynamic bike and so there were no moments when I wished I could be an Olympic bike rider again.
Instead, I just cycled through Paris, thinking how lovely it was to be on a bike rather than in a car. It was a little reminder of how happy I am on the sedate side of the track.
