The team won only a silver medal as they were swept away by the British juggernaut that saw them claim a record 14 medals, eight of them gold.

 

It was Australian cycling's lowest return since the 1980 Olympics in Moscow when they failed to win a medal.

 

The disappointment was made even more acute by the fact that, four years ago in Athens, Australia had topped the cycling medal table with 10 medals, six of them gold.

 

This time they had only Anna Meares' silver medal in the sprint behind Britain's Victoria Pendleton to show for their efforts.

 

A poor season ended yesterday at the World Championships in Varese where only one of Australia's nine-man team was able to complete the 260km road race.

 

But Bannan remains optimistic about the future.

 

He said: “In some areas we are seeing the change of the guard and we do have some very exciting talent coming through.

"In obvious areas there's a fair amount of work to do but I certainly believe the talent is there for us to go into the next four-year period going into London with some challenges ahead of us.

"But also, with the quality of the riders coming through, I don't think it will be that long before you see Australia as a nation back being competitive in the next two or three years."