Comment: Nine million bicycles in this city and Britain beats them all

On a rare day of blazing Beijing sunshine, the omens looked good from the start. Even in the qualifier, Team GB broke the world record. Staff, from Stockport, rode the fastest opening leg in history with a time of just 17.19 seconds.

In the semi-final, Britain powered lethally past the US. And in the final, as the shadows lengthened over the Laoshan velodrome, the British trio prevailed over perhaps the most satisfying opponents of all - France, who also happen to be current world champions.

Panicked by their relatively poor start to the competition, France had dropped Arnaud Tournant between the qualification round and the final. He was the nation's best sprint cyclist, but he was old. Within the hour, it was a decision France had come to bitterly regret.

Around six thousand spectators, including a vocal, flag-waving British contingent, roared from the stands as Hoy, Kenny and Staff averaged an astonishing 62.6 kilometres per hour round the steeply-raked track. Hoy, from Edinburgh, is nicknamed the "real McHoy".

Picked to take the last lap, he came through in storming style to cross the finish line for a team score of just

43.128 seconds, 0.65 of a second ahead of his French rival.

He raised his helmet in jubilation as he did a victory lap. Some of the spectators were actually crying. It was not immediately clear whether they were British or French.

There was no British royal on hand to congratulate the winners, so a Dutch one had to do. The British team, in their blue and white cycling suits, braced in anticipation and a kind of relief as the Prince of Orange, a Dutch member of the IOC, placed the precious gold discs around their necks.

Their gestures of triumph were rather British, significantly more restrained than those of the bronzeplaced Germans. As the national anthem played, Hoy bit his lip and just about managed not to cry.

From the velodrome, on the edge of Beijing's sprawl, the distant mountains where another cyclist, Nicole Cooke, won Britain's first gold could be seen, along with an adjacent theme park containing what looked like an extremely bad, life-size copy of Big Ben.

With Cooke, and then Emma Pooley taking silver in the time trial, cycling was already one of Team GB's key medal strengths.

Hopes of further glory now the action has moved to the track are sky-high, with cyclist Bradley Wiggins expected to repeat his Athens gold in the men's 4000-metre individual pursuit tomorrow, Hoy tipped for success in the keirin later the same day, Rebecca Romero strongly favoured in Sunday's individual pursuit and a cluster of further cycling competitions likely to produce British medals next week.

When a certain British politician advised his countrymen to get on their bikes, he could not have foreseen what it would lead to.