The lanes of rural Buckinghamshire have become crowded with cyclists.

Serious cyclists, I mean; you know, with all the gear.

Some of the men even have shaved legs.

Herne Hill Velodrome is ship-shape and Bristol fashion.

And the men's road cycling world champion is a Brit.

It is like climbing into a time-machine and being transported back to the 1960s.

Next thing you know, there will be a Pink Floyd revival.

(Oh. Apparently there already is one.)

The really good thing about all of this (apart from if Ummagumma gets to be recognised for the masterpiece it assuredly is) would be if obesity in Britain could also return to 1960s levels.

Encouragingly, a British Cycling press release - that is bound to have won the body brownie points with those battling to show that the London Olympics will leave a lasting legacy in terms of increased participation in grass-roots sport - suggests that cycling is doing its bit.

"British Cycling has signed up its 40,000th member, doubling its membership since 2007 in what has been a period of unprecedented growth for the national governing body," the release said.

"The milestone comes just one day after Mark Cavendish claimed a world title for Britain in the Men's Road Race in Copenhagen."


Membership expanded from 20,000 members in April 2007 to 30,000 by May 2010 and has since "catapulted" (British Cycling's verb, not mine) to 40,000 in just over a year.

The body said this growth had been boosted by the organisation's elite success since the 2008 Beijing Olympics "and a host of effective grassroots initiatives that are converting the inspirational power of its athletes into thousands of newcomers to cycling".

The cynic in me wonders whether the plaudits shouldn't also be extended to the "inspirational power" of soaring fuel prices and high unemployment.

Wasn't it Conservative hardman Norman Tebbit who observed that when his father was unemployed he got on his bike and looked for work?

Perhaps it is the 1980s - or, heaven forbid, the 1930s - we have headed back to, not the Sixties.

But let that pass – after all, if the drop in living standards encourages people to get back into the habit of cycling - and, hence, make themselves fitter and healthier, and the planet greener – it could be portrayed as one of the few positive consequences of the last few years of financial turbulence and economic torpor.

What I do really wonder, though, is whether our increased interest in cycling - triggered as I believe it has been in part by elite-level success – is sustainable.

Less than a year out, all the signs are that it will be hard for the GB cycling team to match the astonishing haul of eight gold medals, four silver and two bronze won in 2008 in the Chinese capital.

This is partly because the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the world governing body, has moved the Olympic, um, goal-posts.

In the 10 track cycling events at London 2012, which together make up more than 50 per cent of the Olympic cycling programme, no country will be able to win more than one medal per event.

Hence, though 54 cycling medals are in theory available, the biggest stash that could be collected by any single country is, by my reckoning, 30 medals.

To match their medals total in Beijing, therefore, Britain's cyclists would have to achieve almost a 50 per cent strike-rate.

While it is one of those sports where a top-secret technological breakthrough could conceivably hand a big advantage to a single nation's cyclists, this seems like a tall order.

If early results disappoint and great expectations look like going unfulfilled, then the attention of the media – and, by extension, the vast Olympic television audience – could start dribbling away to events such as rowing, where British prospects appear outstandingly good, or football and swimming/diving, where developing story-lines look especially colourful.

The way things have worked out, an awful lot is likely to depend on the meaty thighs of that man Cavendish.

Ironically, the sprint legend was the only member of Britain's 2008 Olympic track cycling team to leave Beijing without a medal – this after he and Brad Wiggins flopped in a long-distance track event called the madison that was so complex it baffled even the watching Tony Blair.


For 2012, the madison has been dropped.

Instead, Cavendish is expected to spearhead a strong British challenge in the men's road race and, perhaps, to land the first host-country gold medal of the London Olympics.

Given that the race will finish outside the Queen's front-door in the Mall, if "Cav" can pull it off, Britain will be able to bask in a true "Cathy Freeman moment" and any subsequent disappointments in the velodrome would matter far, far less.

If not...well, present levels of interest and participation might prove to be a high-water mark – especially if we are back gossiping about rising house prices in our gas-guzzling Chelsea tractors by then.

(A big "if" that last one, admittedly.)

For me, much the most important sentence in that press release was attributed to British Cycling president Brian Cookson when he said: "We are on track to get one million more people cycling regularly and increase weekly participation to 125,000 by 2013".

Unless that target is hit - and sustained or increased year-by-year for the rest of this decade – we will have shown only that inspired (and inspiring) elite-level excellence has a tendency to rub off on grass-roots participation.

Whether that elite-level excellence is achieved in East London, East Asia or East Denmark might not make a shred of difference.

Only if London 2012 is followed by an enduring extension of the biking boom will those already pointing to the positive legacy of hosting the Games have an airtight case.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed by clicking here