Inside the Medal Factory

20 years ago, the structure on the outskirts of Manchester was built

for the city's failed Olympic did. Tonight, we find out how this white

elephant became the National Cycling Centre, reducing sporting success

Britain never drink. Tonight we celebrate that success and asked if

the Great Britain cycling team can maintain world domination. Go inside

Inside the Medal Factory. Victoria Pendleton takes the gold!

Would anyone ever beat that? I am a former NBA basketball player, so I

know a bit about sport at the highest level. But as a psychologist

I am particularly interested about what's so special about this and

what makes these guys world leaders? Long before the Velodrome was

built, Manchester had another cycling track. The harassed stadium

named after a local hero and for times world champion. Another

cycling victory! Since Harrods, whose statue washes over this arena,

Britain didn't have a hero until someone inspired a new generation.

-- Harris. Brilliant writer, William machine. As soon as I heard him

finished the race, I went out and went flat out for an hour. -- Lily

and writer, William machine. Chris Gordon and his superbike on

Britain's first cycling gold medal for 72 years. 60 million people were

going to watch this. Unemployed comforter, no money, off you go. --

unemployed carpenter. Then, suddenly, it's all over. They put a

medal around your neck and that's it. You have actually done it. It

was an amazing experience and I still only half believe it, to be

honest. Chris, for the uninitiated, can you tell us a bit about the

bike. This is nothing like a Raleigh chopper. This is a basic track bike

at the beach -- GB team will use. There are no tears. There are no

hills riding around in circles. You don't need breaks for this. You

would think that would be dangerous but it is safety in numbers.

Everyone is in the same boat. Until London 2012, this was the only

Olympic standard track in the country and there has been a real

special feel about this place. Riders have relocated to the

north-west to write what has become one of the fastest tracks in the

world. I remember walking in and being amazed at how steep the

banks. I had never seen anything like that in Britain. It felt

amazing. Like being on a fairground ride. When you dive off, it leaves

you feeling a bit... A bit of a fun feeling. That night when I went to

bed, I still felt like I was moving. Here we are underneath the track and

we can hear Great Britain cycling, practising above us. First thing

that strikes me is the amount of light coming through the gaps. I

know there must be a good reason for that. Wood is a living and breathing

thing and it expands and contracts. It's something we have to keep on

top of all the time. At the moment, it has strong a little because we

had a hot summer. We haven't had a bad winter yet. That's why you see

the gaps. Being underneath the track, you get to appreciate the

curve. It's architecturally quite beautiful. This is a fantastic

endurance track. We have held so many world records here. Simply

because of the design of the track. The designer thought about it to

make it the fastest track in the world.

Walking in, you are greeted by these photographs of all the medallists it

produced and they are rapidly running out of wall space. Look at

this. Winning is our business. But it's not always been that way.

In 1993, Manchester failed to gain in its bid to host the Olympic

Games. -- failed again. In order to be allowed to bid, Manchester had to

have a facility and it was cheaper to build the velodrome than a

swimming pool or athletics track. But the ?9 million structure, the

first indoor track in the country, looked increasingly like a white

elephant. Although there was some cycling, the venue was also used to

hold food shows and cheerleading Championships and was plagued by a

leaking roof. Compared to now, you look back and it seems so basic and

we would go to competitions, he would have two sign the track out

for one week. -- the tracksuit. It would have to give it back at the

end of the week. He would borrow a set of wheels to compete with Andy

would have a skin suit, a race suit, for the season. You tell the story.

You tell these stories now and the young riders say, here he goes

again. But it's true! Everything changed with the

appointment of the new performance director. Peter King arrived at the

velodrome in 1997, ringing with confidence and vision. The first

week in the role, I was equipping the office, thinking about building

a team and thinking about the fundamental principles that I wanted

the British cycling team to operate by. While I look back on that,

sometimes insane -- sounds like hardship but it was an extraordinary

opportunity of starting with a blank sheet of paper. It was effectively a

velodrome shell. It's not what it is now, the spiritual home of a

performance phenomenon. What are the other changes you have made to try

to stamp the differential, put a new star -- start point on British

cycling? One was to almost compose a script of a vision that said that

with the resources available, with a facility like this, the population

of 60 million and a few people who have been to the top of that

proverbial mountain and seeing what it is to be a medallist, why

couldn't we be great? That was shared at the start of the story,

loosely to an audience saying, that insane. But they didn't say no. --

mostly due to. What made you think it could work? Because somebody has

to be number one. British cycling have the ambition.

In 1998, it got a shot in the arm from the national lottery. Peter

secured ?6 million worth of funding to create a world-class performance

programme. The first three riders he signed were Bradley Wiggins, Chris

Hoy and Jason Quill. He called me down to the office. I went down

there, 18 years of age. I was sitting there with him and he was

telling me about the grand plan. He wanted a world-class performance

plan and he wanted all of these young riders and they were going to

pay us money so we didn't have to go to Europe to write for an amateur

team or whatever. I remember thinking, OK. I was the first rider

he signed for the World Cup to -- performance plan.

Just two years later at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Jason won gold and

the Great Britain cycling team started being taken seriously. Peter

changed the cult of cycling and the new millennium brought a new era. "

Sydney expected to have a gold-medallist in the team. To be so

pleased for him as your friend and teammate but also to have that

inspiration to think, if he can do it, we possibly can as a team.

Peter persuaded this sports psychologist to comment work for

them and they built on the success with a philosophy of marginal gains.

If you broke cycling performance down, all of its component part --

component parts, and improve on it of those elements by a small amount

and you put those elements together, you will get a change and

improvement in performance. Sometimes quite significantly. That

was a fundamental philosophy. Then we started to make sure that

everyone in the team forward in this kind of continuous improvement way.

We found all types of different opportunities to improve

performances and no detail was too small. This is the inner sanctum of

British cycling, where we keep all of the clever stuff. More info and

came when Chris took the job as director of research and develop it,

ensuring the Great Britain team is always at the front of technological

advances. What are some of the cool tech in here? Disc wheels for

aerodynamic purposes. Incredibly thin wheels. They are made of silk

and the trend is so thin to keep the weight down that they are guaranteed

for 50 kilometres. You put about five times the pressure in these

that you put in your car tyres. Very specialist piece of kit. There is an

incredible history here. We have Laura Trott's bike that she will use

at the World Championships, Mark Cavendish's like, Bradley Wiggins'

bike. A little bit of dust on it now. Sir Chris Hoy's track bike as

well. Remarkable. It is amazing. The amount of incredible thing is that

we have got. You have a selection of a couple of helmets? Yes. This is

one of the sprinter's helmets that they use. It is designed

specifically for the last Olympic Games. A lot of ergonomic modelling

went in this. This is an old one from the 90s that I used. You can

see the similarities in shape. But in those days, they didn't have to

have the protective padding inside. So it smaller. We had an instance

where the French felt that we were using wheels which were to round,

which is quite amusing. -- too round. The two then scoured the

globe for the best coaches. The person who has had the biggest

impact has to be Seamus. He is a unique character. It's difficult to

get it right. The combination of Rocky's trainer, a little guy,

always in-your-face talking, and Crocodile Dundee. The first thing

you have to have his passion. You can't see this as a job. A lot of

our coaching team don't see it as a job. I have to tell them not to come

in but also I think you tend to innovate quite a lot in coaching. We

tried different things on a reckoner basis. We had discussions with the

greatest, Sir Chris Hoy. He said, we need to make changes. At this moment

in time, you are not going to win. There are times you want to throttle

him but everyone would agree he has been a massive benefit to the team.

The news is that if Chris poi wants to get a medal, he Bill half to beat

his lifetime best -- Chris Hoy. At the Athens Olympics of 2004, the

ridiculous attention to detail of the performance plan paid off and

there was gold for both Bradley Wiggins and Sir Chris Hoy.

I was floating. It was almost as if I was in some kind of transfers to a

crossed the line and normally when I win based -- I straightaway

celebrate. But I was so shocked and stunned by the fact that, is this

real? Have actually done this? Eventually, there was a flag hanging

over the track. I realised, you have done it. Just to realise that you

are an Olympic champion and you have this gold medal which you have

strived for your whole career, up until London I would have said it

was the most amazing experience of my whole career.

One cyclist came home bitterly disappointed and without any medals.

Victoria Pendleton was struggling physically and psychologically. But

back at the velodrome, help was at hand. Here is something you don't

see often. The physiotherapy room, the doctors down there. Here, in

this door, the psychiatrist. Normally do most sports not employ a

psychiatrist, they don't advertise it so openly. Doctor Steve Peters is

routinely called the most important person in this building.

Steve is literally a genius. Steve is an incredible human being. Doctor

Steve Peters was working as a forensic -- forensic psychiatrist at

the time. He was working with mass murderers and psychopath at the time

and be persuaded him to come and work for us full-time anti- had a

major impact. Dave maintains that you are the most important person in

the building. He is alluding to... I can't get cyclist to cycle fast on

the track. But what he was saying was when he first met me he believed

the mental aspects and psychological aspects were crucial to performance.

I came in at the left-field by being a psychiatrist and not knowing too

much about the sports side which was an advantage. I just came in and

brought what I from clinical work. He came up with a simple analogy to

help the athletes. He told them to treat negative and unhelpful

thoughts like an unruly chimpanzee that needs to be kept in a cage. I

have always been an emotional rider. Every day I keep a psychological

diary. I will note any time I have had a bit of road rage or anything

like that. diary. I will note any time I have

had a bit of road rage or We have heard some of the athletes talk

about the chip. What is it they mean like that? Being very simplistic,

the areas that are being employed later on in your scanner, so we can

tell what is happening. It breaks down into three different systems.

One is what I call the human, where we say, I want this, this feeling,

this thought. A chimp might come in very differently. That part of the

brain might say, I can't fail here, if I fail it is catastrophic. It

will start talking to you and this is unwelcome thoughts and feelings.

What they find is helpful and what isn't and learning a skill to shift

the blood supply in the brain. He really helps me put everything in

perspective in my life not how I perceive myself as a sports person,

how I approach competitions, ways and methods to try and keep the nuns

at bay. -- nodes. It sometimes feels like life or death. Nobody is dying.

I am riding around in circles really fast. I could win, I might not, but

that is it at the end of the day. It does not sound like it is you're

driving force. When somebody asks you to represent your country, your

high and did a racing jersey, it means so much. You do not say, I do

not want to thank you. And try she did. Victoria's moment came at the

2008 Beijing Olympics, games dominated by British cycling. They

won eight gold medals. Beijing Olympic aims was an absently

incredible experience. It was so special. I was one of the last

events. I sat in the apartment watching the little TV, watching all

the guys win. I was like, wow, this is crazy. These are all the people I

train with day in and day out. And I am seeing them win and achieve their

dreams and it is a credible. -- incredible. I was like, wow, I need

to win. I really need to win to be part of this team. Three laps

separating her from the ultimate prize in sport. And I was like, oh

my gosh, I am going to be the only one on the team who does not win if

they do not get a medal. It is a crazy place to be end. And it came

together. The gold medal is yours, Victoria Pendleton is the Olympic

champion. It was a dream come true. And the response was incredible.

Cycling was lifted to a new level in the UK. It was a very special time

for everybody involved. Of course, cycling does not just happen on the

track. With British cycling now dominating the world, a year later

date announced he was forming the first British were addressing team.

Team Sky would be run the set of red circles and ambition that he

formulated at the velodrome. -- principles. A lot of people thought

it was a bit punchy and arrogant at the time. Maybe it was. But it was

not meant to be. But it was important that we stated what Al

Gore was. -- our goal. Here comes Bradley Wiggins. Weeks later, he got

gold in the time trial at London 2012. Olympic fever swept the

nation. I do not think my sporting career would top that now. He was

not the only one. The British cycling team repeated their success

in Beijing and 18 gold medals. Twice as many as in any other discipline.

A huge contribution to their unprecedented courage. Jason Kenny

replaced Chris Hoy in the main's Sprint and won gold. London was

always the main goal. It was very special to go and go well. It was

quite nice. But there were tears on the podium for those who knew it

would be their last Olympics. I realised that was the end of the

Olympic journey. I had been to four games. When I was on the podium on

Sydney, I did not remain would PS3 games later receiving another

Olympic golden metal. -- gold medal. -- be here three. I said, do not do

this now. But I could not help it. It was such an emotional moment.

This belief it had all come together and it worked. Joy that I have been

able to do the last 16 years of my life pursuing something I genuinely

loved and worked out so well. But in Victoria's case, they were tears of

relief. I am so glad that it is done and I can move on. The previous

Olympics, you got a gold medal. So there is high hopes on you doing it

again. It is the toughest thing I have ever done, hands down. The fact

that it was a difficult and challenging makes it feel even

better. At London 2012 also threw out plenty of stars of the future

like Laura Trott. After the games it was absolutely crazy. I could not

predict the amount of attention. It took getting used to, but I do like

it. I always have Victoria Pendleton to ask an autograph and photo. That

is me now. I can give it back to the girls coming up through the sport.

The summer of 2012 will also be remembered for the Paralympics. The

programme has gone from strength to strength. Since I have gone on

board, we have gone through the roof. We got 17 gold medals. We

could not believe it. In London we were not quite as lucky, we got

eight. Four of those online. To be able to be part of these team, you

learn so much from each other and it is great. It is easy to see why this

is the busiest velodrome in the world. From eight o'clock in the

morning until ten o'clock at night it is completely pull every single

morning. But not as the elite. Schoolchildren, beginners and

veterans. This writer is over the age of 80. You cannot do it in

football or any other sport. Chris Hoy comes past sometimes, morning,

boys, just like that. What is special about this bike? It was

built for Bradley Wiggins. This is not just a casual runaround for you,

this is serious. What does it mean for you? It keeps you fit. As you

get older if you do not use it, you lose it. There have been a lot of

changes in cycling since the veterans first started. In 2008, BMX

became an export. In Manchester they got this track as an extension to

the velodrome. They have started producing winners. We are starting

to be the most dominant DMX nation in the world. It has certainly

changed a lot. -- DMX. It has been a complete game changer for us. We are

the envy of the world now. Athletes from all over the world want to

change here. -- train. As Brits we were not used to excelling at sport.

But at the home of British cycling in Manchester, they found a winning

formula. Through hard work, self belief and a psychological focus. It

is a story that is can to continue to excite and inspire. It has been

such a huge part of my life. So much has happened. All of the success. To

have the space and the opportunity was a once in a lifetime chance for

the sport. Thankfully the sport took it. It is a can come true for a

cycling fan. -- dreamer. The UK is there a stranger to

temperature contrasts. -- no stranger. But we went forward a

couple of months across the Midlands. Scotland definitely back

in winter. But the colder across the North is on the way out as a