Bradley Wiggins declared himself satisfied after taking silver in the team pursuit on day one of competition at Glasgow 2014.
Wiggins, who won Olympic gold in the discipline in Beijing six years ago, said the defeat to Australia is the first step en route to the Rio Games in 2016.
“I’m disappointed, although in hindsight I think we’ll look back at this and realise it is the starting point for the next two years,” he said.
“Rio is the goal, we’ve got to work back from that, and it takes four people to be on par. We’ve all had such different preparation, but I think there are a lot of positives to take from it.
“I don’t want to sound like Roy Hodgson but we’ve definitely got some work to do. “
Asked about the prospect of Great Britain winning gold for the third-consecutive Olympics in two years’ time, the 2012 Tour de France champion replied positively.
“I’ve answered the question in terms of whether or not I could still do it. There’s a lot more room improvement, and I think that comes with more dedication to the track.
“It’s not going to be easy. We’ve got our work cut out. They’ve [Australia] set the standard once again, but we’ve been there before and it’s not a bad position to be in.
“We’ve done two world class rides there off of four weeks together, so we’ll be there.”
The 34-year-old was arguably the strongest of the English quartet as they finished five seconds behind their rivals.
He notably did a two-and-a-half lap turn in the morning’s qualifying session, and replicated such pace-setting spells in the afternoon’s final.
Wiggins added: “We’re all at different levels, and the strategy was that if I could go longer and take the strain off, that’s what team pursuiting is all about.”
Bradley Wiggins’s track return ends in silver at Glasgow 2014
Australia win team pursuit, with England second
