Laura Trott has responded to rivals making insinuations and raising questions about British success at the Olympics.
Rivals have pointed to Team GB's relatively lacklustre showings at the Track World Championships in the years since London 2012, only for the riders to come out and win a plethora of medals in Rio.
Most vocal in her questioning was German track sprinter Kristina Vogel, who said: "I don’t want to accuse anyone of anything but it is all very questionable".
Vogel beat two British riders on her way to gold, so any hint of wrongdoing seems even more misplaced.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live Trott said: “[I’m] not angry as such, it is a little bit annoying and frustrating because it is a lot of hard work that has gone into that performance."
For British riders and especially for fans, the Olympics are the focus and the intervening championships will barely feature for a lot of spectators.
“British Cycling has always been an Olympics-based programme, so for us it wasn’t about clearing up at the World Championships," Trott continued.
"Don’t get me wrong, it would have been nice because they were in London, but it’s always been around the Olympics."
Look back at the Olympics
Laura Trott on her dominant omnium performance: 'I didn't even feel that good'
Laura Trott wins omnium gold medal to become Britain's greatest female Olympian
Jason Kenny wins the keirin to take his sixth Olympic gold
UK Sport and the National Lottery pump huge amounts of money into elite sport, the legacy of which is intended to be mass participation.
Each Olympic medals costs around £4 million when UK Sport's budget is divided across the 67 medals collected in Rio. As such, a focus on the Games is an obvious approach for any sportsperson wanting continued funding.
“[The Olympics are] what our funding is pushed towards, that’s where they spent our UK Sport money," Trott added.
"So for us it was about performing there and I think if we’d come away and under-performed at the Olympics, we’d have been gutted if we’d cleaned up at London because it would have meant we’d have peaked at the wrong time.
“And I think what a lot of other nations don’t know, and what they don’t see, is the fact that it doesn’t really matter about the World Championships. It’s all about the Olympics.”
-
-
Fabio Jakobsen takes his first win after life-threatening crash
The Dutch sprinter is back on the top step after his crash with Dylan Groenewegen one year ago
By Alex Ballinger •
-
Tour of Britain 2021 route: Team time trial and Great Orme finish unveiled
This year's race will take the peloton from Cornwall, through Wales, before finishing in Scotland
By Richard Windsor •
-
European Track Championships cancelled after ‘hijacking’ of Ryanair flight in Belarus
The European Championships were the last major event before the Tokyo Olympics
By Alex Ballinger •
-
European track championships in Belarus in doubt after Ryanair flight was ‘hijacked’
German team have already pulled out while British squad expecting competition to be moved
By Alex Ballinger •
-
Six Day Series goes virtual with Olympic and European champions
The 2020 London edition was postponed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic
By Jonny Long •
-
Four, the record: Inside the race to smash the Individual Pursuit four-minute barrier
The individual pursuit may no longer be an Olympic event but the race to break the four-minute barrier has taken on a new urgency
By Simon Smythe •
-
European Track Championships: race schedule and how to watch
Eurosport will be showing extensive coverage of the European Track Championships over the next five days
By Simon Collis •
-
Cycling world pays tribute to Belgian cycling legend Patrick Sercu
Sercu died at the age of 74 on Friday
By Jonny Long •
-
Olympic champion Callum Skinner steps away from British track team
Olympic champion Callum Skinner is calling time on his elite track cycling career, after 11 years in the sport.
By Alex Ballinger •
-
Neah Evans: From a veterinary practice to the track world championships
Neah Evans will make her world championship debut today in Pruszkow, Poland. Her trajectory has been rapid but the path has been anything but typical.
By Vern Pitt •
