"It was important that we came away from this on a high," Brailsford said.

"When you take the overall event, we've come out with seven golds in the 10 Olympic disciplines, which is a good return.

"We didn't really compete in one - the men's team sprint where we had the mishap - and we'll have to go back to the drawing board on the individual sprints.

"But, overall, it's a good start to the season."

Despite the healthy number of wins, there was an unsuccessful outing in the men's team sprint, where Jason Kenny's (pictured far left) wheel slipped and Britain finished fifth, failing to gain any Olympic qualification points, and Sir Chris Hoy subsequently withdrew from the rest of the Championships with a virus.


Matt Crampton (pictured second from left), however, strengthened his claim to an Olympic place in the keirin over Sir Chris with a dominant victory in that event.

There also were no individual sprint medals for Britain, with France's Kévin Sireau taking gold in the men's event and Lyubov Shulika of Ukraine earning a surprise win in a women's event where Britain's Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton could only finish eighth.

But after making up for it with victory in the keirin, Pendleton reiterated her intention to carry on training like a demon for London.

Nineteen-year-old Laura Trott (pictured below), already a world champion in the team pursuit, had another outstanding international outing for Britain as part of the winning women's pursuit team and adding another gold in the omnium, with Ed Clancy winning the men's version.

"There's a lot of work to be done between now and Christmas," Brailsford added.

"There's nothing fancy, it's hard, hard graft and real grit.

"It's a foundation [and] if you don't get it right, you're in trouble."
 
Nine of the squad will travel to Kazakhstan for the season's first World Cup in two weeks time, but the remainder will now plunge into a period of intensive training designed to prepare them for a succession of important events in 2012.

The Olympic year begins with the London stage of the World Cup, which will be the first competition held inside the Olympic Velodrome, followed by April's World Championships in Melbourne and the Olympic racing itself.

Hoy and Jason Queally lost valuable time on the track as a result of the former's illness and the sprint team's failure to reach the medal races, in which Queally - the Sydney Olympics gold medallist who came out of retirement for London 2012 - had been earmarked for a ride.

"They'll be frustrated - they need to race, and they know that," said Brailsford.

"The way it panned out, with Chris' illness and the mishap in the team sprint, it's frustrating.

"But they're old warriors, those two.

"They know how to manage themselves.

"They're hungry, they want it and it won't be a big setback for them."

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