The hunger is back in the British cycling team for the first time since their gold rush at the Beijing Olympics, according to team boss Dave Brailsford.

Britain's track cycling elite, led by Sir Chris Hoy, return to action tomorrow at the World Cup event in Manchester and performance director Brailsford said the buzz within the camp was the best it had been since Beijing.

"Everyone's got real hunger and desire - from the riders through to the mechanics," said Brailsford. "Everyone has had a break and they can't wait to get back into the thick of battle."

The cycling chief admitted, however, that it had initially been tough to motivate his star-studded line-up struggling with a post-Beijing hangover for what is the first World Cup event of the season.

"It's been really difficult to get everyone back on track and this season has been different to any other," he said. "A lot of these guys came back as big celebrities after Beijing and I think it's taken some of them a bit of time to get used to it.

"But everyone's done that now and we're back to square one. Take someone like Chris Hoy. Considering what he's achieved, his desire and drive has just been incredible."

Brailsford described the three-day event as the first step towards preparing for London 2012, where Britain will be the team to beat after their haul of 12 medals - including seven golds - on the track in China.

However, he insisted he had no plans to make targets for either tomorrow's World Cup or the Games on home soil, saying: "There's no point making comparisons as Beijing has absolutely no bearing on London whatsoever. It's not like what we did there is going to give us a headstart. We're starting from scratch and we just have to make our team the best prepared it possibly can be and then take the good and bad of what happens on track."

As well as building for 2012, Brailsford's other major focus is on Team Sky, the professional road race outfit he is heading up for next season.

The 25-man squad has been finalised with "one or two riders still to be made public" and Brailsford is confident his team can get the wild card they need to realise their ambition and compete at next year's Tour de France.

"I'd really hope so but it's dangerous to make predictions," he said. "It's a hell of a race but I think we can make our mark on it. We'll do our damnedest but it's a case of not under-performing rather than trying to do anything magical in our first year."