STEVEN Burke’s shock bronze was the moment Britain’s cycling boss knew his team were about to produce something special.

Britain won seven out of ten track cycling golds at the Laoshan Velodrome and an incredible 13 out of 30 medals.

Burke, of Colne, wasn’t even due to compete in the individual pursuit but snatched his chance just 48 hours after his call-up – finishing third with a performance that left both him and his coaches in shock.

“We knew Steven was in form but we never believed he’d achieve what he did,” admitted Dave Brailsford, whose manage-ment of the British cycling team is being hailed as a role-model for other sports to follow in the road to 2012.

“He didn’t just take a second off his personal best – he totally smashed it. That was the moment I knew this team was really onto something. I couldn’t believe his ride, it was just exceptional.

“We knew where he was in training against his team-mates but we didn’t realise where we were against the world until that moment.

“All the riders and all the staff watched Steven and it gave them an incredible shot of belief, it meant an awful lot to us internally as a team.

“We should all recognise what a performance that was and how Steven set us up for the rest of the championships.”

Burke missed out on a place in the gold medal winning team pursuit quartet but the retirement of Paul Manning makes him hot favourite to assume the role at next year’s World Champion-ships in Pruszkow, Poland.

“We’ve known for some time that he was going to be a very good rider,” added Brailsford.

“What I never thought was he would come to this Olympics and achieve what he did.”

However, new Olympic champion Victoria Pendle-ton has warned against putting too much expectation on a youthful team.

Success in Beijing means the sport is guaranteed to be one of the hottest tickets in 2012.

“We’ve set ourselves a very tough target to beat,” she said. “I’m not saying it’s impossible but we’ve got some teams who really want to beat us now.

Lloyds TSB, proud first partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and supporter of Team GB on their journey to 2012. Visit www.LloydsTSB.com/London2012