:00:15. > :00:17.20 years ago, the structure on the outskirts of Manchester was built
:00:18. > :00:22.for the city's failed Olympic did. Tonight, we find out how this white
:00:23. > :00:27.elephant became the National Cycling Centre, reducing sporting success
:00:28. > :00:31.Britain never drink. Tonight we celebrate that success and asked if
:00:32. > :00:32.the Great Britain cycling team can maintain world domination. Go inside
:00:33. > :00:54.Inside the Medal Factory. Victoria Pendleton takes the gold!
:00:55. > :00:56.Would anyone ever beat that? I am a former NBA basketball player, so I
:00:57. > :01:01.know a bit about sport at the highest level. But as a psychologist
:01:02. > :01:03.I am particularly interested about what's so special about this and
:01:04. > :01:15.what makes these guys world leaders? Long before the Velodrome was
:01:16. > :01:20.built, Manchester had another cycling track. The harassed stadium
:01:21. > :01:32.named after a local hero and for times world champion. Another
:01:33. > :01:38.cycling victory! Since Harrods, whose statue washes over this arena,
:01:39. > :01:43.Britain didn't have a hero until someone inspired a new generation.
:01:44. > :01:49.-- Harris. Brilliant writer, William machine. As soon as I heard him
:01:50. > :01:56.finished the race, I went out and went flat out for an hour. -- Lily
:01:57. > :02:01.and writer, William machine. Chris Gordon and his superbike on
:02:02. > :02:06.Britain's first cycling gold medal for 72 years. 60 million people were
:02:07. > :02:13.going to watch this. Unemployed comforter, no money, off you go. --
:02:14. > :02:19.unemployed carpenter. Then, suddenly, it's all over. They put a
:02:20. > :02:25.medal around your neck and that's it. You have actually done it. It
:02:26. > :02:30.was an amazing experience and I still only half believe it, to be
:02:31. > :02:36.honest. Chris, for the uninitiated, can you tell us a bit about the
:02:37. > :02:42.bike. This is nothing like a Raleigh chopper. This is a basic track bike
:02:43. > :02:49.at the beach -- GB team will use. There are no tears. There are no
:02:50. > :02:52.hills riding around in circles. You don't need breaks for this. You
:02:53. > :02:54.would think that would be dangerous but it is safety in numbers.
:02:55. > :03:05.Everyone is in the same boat. Until London 2012, this was the only
:03:06. > :03:11.Olympic standard track in the country and there has been a real
:03:12. > :03:14.special feel about this place. Riders have relocated to the
:03:15. > :03:19.north-west to write what has become one of the fastest tracks in the
:03:20. > :03:22.world. I remember walking in and being amazed at how steep the
:03:23. > :03:28.banks. I had never seen anything like that in Britain. It felt
:03:29. > :03:34.amazing. Like being on a fairground ride. When you dive off, it leaves
:03:35. > :03:35.you feeling a bit... A bit of a fun feeling. That night when I went to
:03:36. > :03:50.bed, I still felt like I was moving. Here we are underneath the track and
:03:51. > :03:55.we can hear Great Britain cycling, practising above us. First thing
:03:56. > :03:57.that strikes me is the amount of light coming through the gaps. I
:03:58. > :04:03.know there must be a good reason for that. Wood is a living and breathing
:04:04. > :04:07.thing and it expands and contracts. It's something we have to keep on
:04:08. > :04:13.top of all the time. At the moment, it has strong a little because we
:04:14. > :04:16.had a hot summer. We haven't had a bad winter yet. That's why you see
:04:17. > :04:21.the gaps. Being underneath the track, you get to appreciate the
:04:22. > :04:27.curve. It's architecturally quite beautiful. This is a fantastic
:04:28. > :04:31.endurance track. We have held so many world records here. Simply
:04:32. > :04:33.because of the design of the track. The designer thought about it to
:04:34. > :04:41.make it the fastest track in the world.
:04:42. > :04:47.Walking in, you are greeted by these photographs of all the medallists it
:04:48. > :04:51.produced and they are rapidly running out of wall space. Look at
:04:52. > :05:00.this. Winning is our business. But it's not always been that way.
:05:01. > :05:09.In 1993, Manchester failed to gain in its bid to host the Olympic
:05:10. > :05:13.Games. -- failed again. In order to be allowed to bid, Manchester had to
:05:14. > :05:18.have a facility and it was cheaper to build the velodrome than a
:05:19. > :05:21.swimming pool or athletics track. But the ?9 million structure, the
:05:22. > :05:26.first indoor track in the country, looked increasingly like a white
:05:27. > :05:31.elephant. Although there was some cycling, the venue was also used to
:05:32. > :05:36.hold food shows and cheerleading Championships and was plagued by a
:05:37. > :05:40.leaking roof. Compared to now, you look back and it seems so basic and
:05:41. > :05:46.we would go to competitions, he would have two sign the track out
:05:47. > :05:49.for one week. -- the tracksuit. It would have to give it back at the
:05:50. > :05:54.end of the week. He would borrow a set of wheels to compete with Andy
:05:55. > :05:57.would have a skin suit, a race suit, for the season. You tell the story.
:05:58. > :05:58.You tell these stories now and the young riders say, here he goes
:05:59. > :06:11.again. But it's true! Everything changed with the
:06:12. > :06:17.appointment of the new performance director. Peter King arrived at the
:06:18. > :06:28.velodrome in 1997, ringing with confidence and vision. The first
:06:29. > :06:32.week in the role, I was equipping the office, thinking about building
:06:33. > :06:36.a team and thinking about the fundamental principles that I wanted
:06:37. > :06:41.the British cycling team to operate by. While I look back on that,
:06:42. > :06:45.sometimes insane -- sounds like hardship but it was an extraordinary
:06:46. > :06:51.opportunity of starting with a blank sheet of paper. It was effectively a
:06:52. > :06:56.velodrome shell. It's not what it is now, the spiritual home of a
:06:57. > :07:00.performance phenomenon. What are the other changes you have made to try
:07:01. > :07:04.to stamp the differential, put a new star -- start point on British
:07:05. > :07:13.cycling? One was to almost compose a script of a vision that said that
:07:14. > :07:17.with the resources available, with a facility like this, the population
:07:18. > :07:20.of 60 million and a few people who have been to the top of that
:07:21. > :07:28.proverbial mountain and seeing what it is to be a medallist, why
:07:29. > :07:33.couldn't we be great? That was shared at the start of the story,
:07:34. > :07:41.loosely to an audience saying, that insane. But they didn't say no. --
:07:42. > :07:43.mostly due to. What made you think it could work? Because somebody has
:07:44. > :07:55.to be number one. British cycling have the ambition.
:07:56. > :07:59.In 1998, it got a shot in the arm from the national lottery. Peter
:08:00. > :08:03.secured ?6 million worth of funding to create a world-class performance
:08:04. > :08:09.programme. The first three riders he signed were Bradley Wiggins, Chris
:08:10. > :08:14.Hoy and Jason Quill. He called me down to the office. I went down
:08:15. > :08:18.there, 18 years of age. I was sitting there with him and he was
:08:19. > :08:20.telling me about the grand plan. He wanted a world-class performance
:08:21. > :08:25.plan and he wanted all of these young riders and they were going to
:08:26. > :08:27.pay us money so we didn't have to go to Europe to write for an amateur
:08:28. > :08:33.team or whatever. I remember thinking, OK. I was the first rider
:08:34. > :08:41.he signed for the World Cup to -- performance plan.
:08:42. > :08:48.Just two years later at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Jason won gold and
:08:49. > :08:53.the Great Britain cycling team started being taken seriously. Peter
:08:54. > :08:57.changed the cult of cycling and the new millennium brought a new era. "
:08:58. > :09:01.Sydney expected to have a gold-medallist in the team. To be so
:09:02. > :09:04.pleased for him as your friend and teammate but also to have that
:09:05. > :09:13.inspiration to think, if he can do it, we possibly can as a team.
:09:14. > :09:17.Peter persuaded this sports psychologist to comment work for
:09:18. > :09:21.them and they built on the success with a philosophy of marginal gains.
:09:22. > :09:27.If you broke cycling performance down, all of its component part --
:09:28. > :09:30.component parts, and improve on it of those elements by a small amount
:09:31. > :09:33.and you put those elements together, you will get a change and
:09:34. > :09:37.improvement in performance. Sometimes quite significantly. That
:09:38. > :09:41.was a fundamental philosophy. Then we started to make sure that
:09:42. > :09:50.everyone in the team forward in this kind of continuous improvement way.
:09:51. > :09:52.We found all types of different opportunities to improve
:09:53. > :09:57.performances and no detail was too small. This is the inner sanctum of
:09:58. > :10:02.British cycling, where we keep all of the clever stuff. More info and
:10:03. > :10:06.came when Chris took the job as director of research and develop it,
:10:07. > :10:10.ensuring the Great Britain team is always at the front of technological
:10:11. > :10:15.advances. What are some of the cool tech in here? Disc wheels for
:10:16. > :10:21.aerodynamic purposes. Incredibly thin wheels. They are made of silk
:10:22. > :10:25.and the trend is so thin to keep the weight down that they are guaranteed
:10:26. > :10:30.for 50 kilometres. You put about five times the pressure in these
:10:31. > :10:35.that you put in your car tyres. Very specialist piece of kit. There is an
:10:36. > :10:39.incredible history here. We have Laura Trott's bike that she will use
:10:40. > :10:44.at the World Championships, Mark Cavendish's like, Bradley Wiggins'
:10:45. > :10:49.bike. A little bit of dust on it now. Sir Chris Hoy's track bike as
:10:50. > :10:53.well. Remarkable. It is amazing. The amount of incredible thing is that
:10:54. > :10:59.we have got. You have a selection of a couple of helmets? Yes. This is
:11:00. > :11:02.one of the sprinter's helmets that they use. It is designed
:11:03. > :11:07.specifically for the last Olympic Games. A lot of ergonomic modelling
:11:08. > :11:12.went in this. This is an old one from the 90s that I used. You can
:11:13. > :11:15.see the similarities in shape. But in those days, they didn't have to
:11:16. > :11:22.have the protective padding inside. So it smaller. We had an instance
:11:23. > :11:27.where the French felt that we were using wheels which were to round,
:11:28. > :11:38.which is quite amusing. -- too round. The two then scoured the
:11:39. > :11:42.globe for the best coaches. The person who has had the biggest
:11:43. > :11:48.impact has to be Seamus. He is a unique character. It's difficult to
:11:49. > :11:56.get it right. The combination of Rocky's trainer, a little guy,
:11:57. > :12:02.always in-your-face talking, and Crocodile Dundee. The first thing
:12:03. > :12:06.you have to have his passion. You can't see this as a job. A lot of
:12:07. > :12:11.our coaching team don't see it as a job. I have to tell them not to come
:12:12. > :12:15.in but also I think you tend to innovate quite a lot in coaching. We
:12:16. > :12:20.tried different things on a reckoner basis. We had discussions with the
:12:21. > :12:26.greatest, Sir Chris Hoy. He said, we need to make changes. At this moment
:12:27. > :12:33.in time, you are not going to win. There are times you want to throttle
:12:34. > :12:38.him but everyone would agree he has been a massive benefit to the team.
:12:39. > :12:49.The news is that if Chris poi wants to get a medal, he Bill half to beat
:12:50. > :12:53.his lifetime best -- Chris Hoy. At the Athens Olympics of 2004, the
:12:54. > :12:57.ridiculous attention to detail of the performance plan paid off and
:12:58. > :13:11.there was gold for both Bradley Wiggins and Sir Chris Hoy.
:13:12. > :13:20.I was floating. It was almost as if I was in some kind of transfers to a
:13:21. > :13:24.crossed the line and normally when I win based -- I straightaway
:13:25. > :13:29.celebrate. But I was so shocked and stunned by the fact that, is this
:13:30. > :13:36.real? Have actually done this? Eventually, there was a flag hanging
:13:37. > :13:42.over the track. I realised, you have done it. Just to realise that you
:13:43. > :13:46.are an Olympic champion and you have this gold medal which you have
:13:47. > :13:50.strived for your whole career, up until London I would have said it
:13:51. > :13:55.was the most amazing experience of my whole career.
:13:56. > :14:00.One cyclist came home bitterly disappointed and without any medals.
:14:01. > :14:05.Victoria Pendleton was struggling physically and psychologically. But
:14:06. > :14:09.back at the velodrome, help was at hand. Here is something you don't
:14:10. > :14:14.see often. The physiotherapy room, the doctors down there. Here, in
:14:15. > :14:17.this door, the psychiatrist. Normally do most sports not employ a
:14:18. > :14:22.psychiatrist, they don't advertise it so openly. Doctor Steve Peters is
:14:23. > :14:28.routinely called the most important person in this building.
:14:29. > :14:38.Steve is literally a genius. Steve is an incredible human being. Doctor
:14:39. > :14:44.Steve Peters was working as a forensic -- forensic psychiatrist at
:14:45. > :14:49.the time. He was working with mass murderers and psychopath at the time
:14:50. > :14:54.and be persuaded him to come and work for us full-time anti- had a
:14:55. > :14:59.major impact. Dave maintains that you are the most important person in
:15:00. > :15:05.the building. He is alluding to... I can't get cyclist to cycle fast on
:15:06. > :15:08.the track. But what he was saying was when he first met me he believed
:15:09. > :15:13.the mental aspects and psychological aspects were crucial to performance.
:15:14. > :15:17.I came in at the left-field by being a psychiatrist and not knowing too
:15:18. > :15:23.much about the sports side which was an advantage. I just came in and
:15:24. > :15:28.brought what I from clinical work. He came up with a simple analogy to
:15:29. > :15:31.help the athletes. He told them to treat negative and unhelpful
:15:32. > :15:38.thoughts like an unruly chimpanzee that needs to be kept in a cage. I
:15:39. > :15:45.have always been an emotional rider. Every day I keep a psychological
:15:46. > :15:47.diary. I will note any time I have had a bit of road rage or anything
:15:48. > :15:50.like that. diary. I will note any time I have
:15:51. > :15:55.had a bit of road rage or We have heard some of the athletes talk
:15:56. > :16:03.about the chip. What is it they mean like that? Being very simplistic,
:16:04. > :16:08.the areas that are being employed later on in your scanner, so we can
:16:09. > :16:13.tell what is happening. It breaks down into three different systems.
:16:14. > :16:22.One is what I call the human, where we say, I want this, this feeling,
:16:23. > :16:25.this thought. A chimp might come in very differently. That part of the
:16:26. > :16:30.brain might say, I can't fail here, if I fail it is catastrophic. It
:16:31. > :16:35.will start talking to you and this is unwelcome thoughts and feelings.
:16:36. > :16:42.What they find is helpful and what isn't and learning a skill to shift
:16:43. > :16:48.the blood supply in the brain. He really helps me put everything in
:16:49. > :16:53.perspective in my life not how I perceive myself as a sports person,
:16:54. > :17:01.how I approach competitions, ways and methods to try and keep the nuns
:17:02. > :17:06.at bay. -- nodes. It sometimes feels like life or death. Nobody is dying.
:17:07. > :17:12.I am riding around in circles really fast. I could win, I might not, but
:17:13. > :17:16.that is it at the end of the day. It does not sound like it is you're
:17:17. > :17:20.driving force. When somebody asks you to represent your country, your
:17:21. > :17:32.high and did a racing jersey, it means so much. You do not say, I do
:17:33. > :17:39.not want to thank you. And try she did. Victoria's moment came at the
:17:40. > :17:46.2008 Beijing Olympics, games dominated by British cycling. They
:17:47. > :17:54.won eight gold medals. Beijing Olympic aims was an absently
:17:55. > :18:01.incredible experience. It was so special. I was one of the last
:18:02. > :18:10.events. I sat in the apartment watching the little TV, watching all
:18:11. > :18:17.the guys win. I was like, wow, this is crazy. These are all the people I
:18:18. > :18:22.train with day in and day out. And I am seeing them win and achieve their
:18:23. > :18:29.dreams and it is a credible. -- incredible. I was like, wow, I need
:18:30. > :18:36.to win. I really need to win to be part of this team. Three laps
:18:37. > :18:42.separating her from the ultimate prize in sport. And I was like, oh
:18:43. > :18:47.my gosh, I am going to be the only one on the team who does not win if
:18:48. > :18:55.they do not get a medal. It is a crazy place to be end. And it came
:18:56. > :19:00.together. The gold medal is yours, Victoria Pendleton is the Olympic
:19:01. > :19:05.champion. It was a dream come true. And the response was incredible.
:19:06. > :19:21.Cycling was lifted to a new level in the UK. It was a very special time
:19:22. > :19:30.for everybody involved. Of course, cycling does not just happen on the
:19:31. > :19:34.track. With British cycling now dominating the world, a year later
:19:35. > :19:41.date announced he was forming the first British were addressing team.
:19:42. > :19:45.Team Sky would be run the set of red circles and ambition that he
:19:46. > :19:52.formulated at the velodrome. -- principles. A lot of people thought
:19:53. > :19:57.it was a bit punchy and arrogant at the time. Maybe it was. But it was
:19:58. > :20:09.not meant to be. But it was important that we stated what Al
:20:10. > :20:14.Gore was. -- our goal. Here comes Bradley Wiggins. Weeks later, he got
:20:15. > :20:20.gold in the time trial at London 2012. Olympic fever swept the
:20:21. > :20:27.nation. I do not think my sporting career would top that now. He was
:20:28. > :20:32.not the only one. The British cycling team repeated their success
:20:33. > :20:37.in Beijing and 18 gold medals. Twice as many as in any other discipline.
:20:38. > :20:43.A huge contribution to their unprecedented courage. Jason Kenny
:20:44. > :20:53.replaced Chris Hoy in the main's Sprint and won gold. London was
:20:54. > :21:01.always the main goal. It was very special to go and go well. It was
:21:02. > :21:06.quite nice. But there were tears on the podium for those who knew it
:21:07. > :21:11.would be their last Olympics. I realised that was the end of the
:21:12. > :21:17.Olympic journey. I had been to four games. When I was on the podium on
:21:18. > :21:22.Sydney, I did not remain would PS3 games later receiving another
:21:23. > :21:35.Olympic golden metal. -- gold medal. -- be here three. I said, do not do
:21:36. > :21:39.this now. But I could not help it. It was such an emotional moment.
:21:40. > :21:45.This belief it had all come together and it worked. Joy that I have been
:21:46. > :21:55.able to do the last 16 years of my life pursuing something I genuinely
:21:56. > :22:01.loved and worked out so well. But in Victoria's case, they were tears of
:22:02. > :22:07.relief. I am so glad that it is done and I can move on. The previous
:22:08. > :22:13.Olympics, you got a gold medal. So there is high hopes on you doing it
:22:14. > :22:18.again. It is the toughest thing I have ever done, hands down. The fact
:22:19. > :22:29.that it was a difficult and challenging makes it feel even
:22:30. > :22:37.better. At London 2012 also threw out plenty of stars of the future
:22:38. > :22:42.like Laura Trott. After the games it was absolutely crazy. I could not
:22:43. > :22:46.predict the amount of attention. It took getting used to, but I do like
:22:47. > :22:51.it. I always have Victoria Pendleton to ask an autograph and photo. That
:22:52. > :22:57.is me now. I can give it back to the girls coming up through the sport.
:22:58. > :23:05.The summer of 2012 will also be remembered for the Paralympics. The
:23:06. > :23:11.programme has gone from strength to strength. Since I have gone on
:23:12. > :23:17.board, we have gone through the roof. We got 17 gold medals. We
:23:18. > :23:22.could not believe it. In London we were not quite as lucky, we got
:23:23. > :23:27.eight. Four of those online. To be able to be part of these team, you
:23:28. > :23:33.learn so much from each other and it is great. It is easy to see why this
:23:34. > :23:37.is the busiest velodrome in the world. From eight o'clock in the
:23:38. > :23:41.morning until ten o'clock at night it is completely pull every single
:23:42. > :23:52.morning. But not as the elite. Schoolchildren, beginners and
:23:53. > :24:03.veterans. This writer is over the age of 80. You cannot do it in
:24:04. > :24:12.football or any other sport. Chris Hoy comes past sometimes, morning,
:24:13. > :24:18.boys, just like that. What is special about this bike? It was
:24:19. > :24:23.built for Bradley Wiggins. This is not just a casual runaround for you,
:24:24. > :24:30.this is serious. What does it mean for you? It keeps you fit. As you
:24:31. > :24:38.get older if you do not use it, you lose it. There have been a lot of
:24:39. > :24:43.changes in cycling since the veterans first started. In 2008, BMX
:24:44. > :24:47.became an export. In Manchester they got this track as an extension to
:24:48. > :25:01.the velodrome. They have started producing winners. We are starting
:25:02. > :25:10.to be the most dominant DMX nation in the world. It has certainly
:25:11. > :25:15.changed a lot. -- DMX. It has been a complete game changer for us. We are
:25:16. > :25:24.the envy of the world now. Athletes from all over the world want to
:25:25. > :25:28.change here. -- train. As Brits we were not used to excelling at sport.
:25:29. > :25:33.But at the home of British cycling in Manchester, they found a winning
:25:34. > :25:37.formula. Through hard work, self belief and a psychological focus. It
:25:38. > :25:44.is a story that is can to continue to excite and inspire. It has been
:25:45. > :25:51.such a huge part of my life. So much has happened. All of the success. To
:25:52. > :25:56.have the space and the opportunity was a once in a lifetime chance for
:25:57. > :25:59.the sport. Thankfully the sport took it. It is a can come true for a
:26:00. > :26:37.cycling fan. -- dreamer. The UK is there a stranger to
:26:38. > :26:43.temperature contrasts. -- no stranger. But we went forward a
:26:44. > :26:52.couple of months across the Midlands. Scotland definitely back
:26:53. > :26:53.in winter. But the colder across the North is on the way out as a