You have to go back to Athens 2004 for the last time Team GB did not win the Olympic men’s team sprint and team pursuit.
Those two track cycling events have been the bedrock of Britain’s success at the velodrome, dubbed the ‘medal factory’, and Jason Kenny and Ed Clancy have been ever present in their respective three-time champion teams.
At Tokyo 2020, however, Team GB’s sprint trio and pursuit quartet face their biggest battle yet to hang on to gold – and it is two of the best cycling brains in Britain plotting their downfall.
Team GB's mens pursuit riders are aiming to bag a fourth straight Olympic gold in the event
Former GB track rider Dan Bigham is now working with Denmark ending to stop the British
In the team sprint, ex-British Cycling coach Mehdi Kordi is now working with the Netherlands, who have won the last three World Championship titles and broke the world record in Berlin last year.
While in the team pursuit, former British rider Dan Bigham is now performance engineer of Denmark, who are also world champions and world record holders and could knock Team GB out of gold medal contention on Tuesday.
Both are experts in their field, who were struggling to have their voices heard within the British Cycling system. Ahead of Tuesday’s team sprint, Kordi, who still lives in Manchester, tells Sportsmail: ‘It’s not personal but I want my team to win and there can only be one winner.
‘There is no animosity. People think you are there to crush them and show them what they are missing, but it’s not schadenfreude-esque. They chose to go with their set up and I made my decision as well.
Bigham's Danish riders are a big threat for the British after breaking their Olympic record
The Netherlands' team sprint female riders fell just short in the bronze medal decider in Izu
‘I enjoy a friendship with a lot of their riders and some of the staff. From their sprint team, I worked with Ryan Owens and Jack Carlin when they were in the academy. Ryan was at my wife’s baby shower!
‘I want to see them do well but unfortunately it’s not like a test where you get a percentage and everyone is happy. We are after one thing. It’s an unfortunate situation but hopefully they don’t hold it against me and I don’t hold it against them.’
Kordi, who was born in Loughborough to Iranian parents, actually started out as a rower rather than a rider. After briefly working as an accountant, he did a Masters in physiology and then applied to be a PhD researcher for the English Institute of Sport, based at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester.
‘I was so physiologically limited in rowing, I was always curious about how I could go better,’ says Kordi. ‘The PhD looked at the physiological underpinning of sprint cycling performance. One thing led to another and I became a sports scientist for the British para-cycling team.’
Kordi also started working voluntarily with Bigham for Team KGF – an independent cycling team who raced against countries in World Cup events and has since morphed into Huub-Wattbike.
However, he had to give it up after British Cycling ruled it to
