I’m going to divert a bit today to look at the bigger picture. But first just a quick note on the events here, to say that Shanaze Reade and Liam Phillips both looked good and qualified easily in their first runs in the stunning BMX arena. They’ll surely be going all the way to the finals over the next two days and I’ll be there to add my cheers to the roars of the massive crowd.

Right now the media are full of stories about how all this cycling success has happened. That’s great to see. There’s a long story to be told, of course, and we are going to put together a definitive and comprehensive review of it for the record, in the next couple of weeks.

But meanwhile here’s my perspective on it, a quick point by point selection of some, and I emphasize some, of the key moments, the key leaps of faith that have taken us from a basket case to the success we enjoy today;

• 1994 - Manchester Velodrome is built as part of Manchester’s Olympic Bid. If we hadn’t had this world class facility then none of this would have happened.

• 1996 - the British Cycling Federation is in meltdown, close to bankruptcy, and a new Board is elected from our Annual Meeting.

• Peter King is appointed as Chief Executive and begins the task of stabilising and re-building the organisation • 1998 - Lottery funding comes on stream and we appoint Peter Keen as our first Performance Director

• Dave Brailsford joins the organisation in support of Peter Keen

• Ian Drake joins and establishes the Talent Team and Regional Development structures that in 2012 will prove to have supplied a high proportion of our Olympic team

• 2000 - first Olympic success in Sydney Olympics, led by Jason Queally’s 1km TT Gold, magically transforming the Manchester Velodrome in the media view from a white elephant to a Gold Medal Factory.

• 2002 - Dave Brailsford takes over as Performance Director.

• 2004 – more Olympic success at Athens with Chris Hoy’s and Bradley Wiggins’ first Golds and a whole basket of medals for the team

• 2008 – Sky come on board as key commercial partner, supporting our sport from grass roots to the elite

• 2008 – Beijing Olympic success startles the world as we bring home 8 Golds, more than the entire French Olympic team can manage across all sports (sorry, France)!

• 2009 – Team Sky announced and recruitment begins, with Bradley Wiggins being the most high-profile signing

• 2009 - Peter King steps down, job well done, and Ian Drake is appointed CEO

• 2010 – Team Sky starts racing and is immediately one of the top teams

• 2011 – more success and progress on every front as membership continues to grow

• 2012 Bradley wins the Tour, Team Sky dominate, massive success at London Olympics, membership and participation in our sport booming as never before.

Now someone pinch me, I must be dreaming! Anyway, no doubt I’ve missed many, many other vital elements, but that’s just my quick review.

Let me know what you think, and what I have missed. I’m happy to revisit it and revise, and hope I haven’t offended anyone by omission. As I said, we’ll be doing a fuller review soon on the British Cycling website.

More from me tomorrow.