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Ed Clancy won his first individual global title - photo: AFP

For every nation, not just Britain, these World Championships were a key staging post en route to the London velodrome; a chance to file a progress report of where they are at compared to everyone else.

And, while Australia were the most successful nation, British Cycling's performance director Dave Brailsford was delighted to be able to point out that, with , four silvers and one bronze medal, his squad delivered in the areas they targeted by topping the medal table for the 10 Olympic disciplines.

But it is not just that medal haul that has given Brailsford cause for optimism. Even in the events where Britain failed to deliver, he feels his riders learned some valuable lessons.

Britain are reigning Olympic champions in the team sprint so the bronze medal their squad of Jason Kenny, Matt Crampton and Sir Chris Hoy collected on day one was seen as a disappointment - but for Brailsford it was his best moment of the week.

"It's probably one of those things that would go unnoticed," said Brailsford. "But in the team sprint you build the team from the front and if you don't have a man who can go super-fast then it is game over.

"Jamie Staff helped us win gold in Beijing but he is unlikely to race again and two months ago we thought we were without a first man and in deep trouble. Jason has stepped up this week and put us back in the mix in this event for 2012."

Brailsford also took almost as many positives out of Hoy's as he did in seeing the 34-year-old triple-Olympic champion clinch his 10th world title in the keirin, saying: "I think it was the best thing that could have happened to him.

"Sir Chris has had everything thrown at him here, including some dirty tricks, but he is not world champion or silver medallist anymore and hopefully everybody will start going for them. Chris might be a little bit off the radar now: people might think that he is beatable, and that is a good thing.

"His future form will be related to his enthusiasm and whether his day-to-day life changes significantly for him to stop wanting to do all the little things that have kept him moving forwards. If he loses that, he is in trouble but I don't think he will."

Given GB finished second behind Australia in the medal table in Copenhagen is Brailsford just putting a positive spin on events? I'd suggest not.

He may be pushing it to suggest that Britain are the only nation with more to come than they have shown in the Danish capital but, when he speaks about his own squad, you can see why he is so encouraged.

He has more cards to play in the men's individual pursuit, where Britain lost out to Australia in the final but without the likes of Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins. The same is true in the women's equivalent, although he might need to persuade Rebecca Romero to return to the ranks to improve to gold.

Even in the women's team sprint, where Jess Varnish might need more than two years to get up to Olympic class, Brailsford could bring back to the track from BMX, and she could even do both events should the London programme allow it.

As , the 1992 Olympic individual pursuit champion, told me: "I don't think there is really anything to panic about.

"Everybody would have liked to have won more gold medals but there are no disaster stories to take away from the week. You can see the good things that have happened and everything that needs to happen in the events where we are behind.

"And sometimes it is good for people to be beaten because it makes them reflect on things and get the little things right when it really matters."

Less encouraging for Britain are the moves by the UCI this week to limit the technological advantage that they and the other major nations hold by implementing rules about the use of expensive bikes that are not available commercially.

But Boardman, who is a leading member of British Cycling's research and development group, known as is confident any rule changes will have a minimal impact.

He told Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sport: "We have always strived to make sure the British team is supplied with the best equipment they can have within the rules and we will continue to do that.

"My only concern is that they need to give us real clarity on how to comply - how many bikes must we sell, at what price and how will they monitor it. Those are the things they need to put in place."

One area where the UCI definitely lack clarity is the omnium, the multi-discipline event that has been introduced to the Olympics in time for 2012.

It was held over a single day in Copenhagen but confusion still reigns over its final format: the latest word from cycling's governing body is that it will be held over two days in London, not the duration of the track programme as originally planned.

That didn't stop Lizzie Armitstead winning a silver in the women's version on Saturday

It may be an experimental event but that probably suits Britain's scientific approach down to the ground. As Boardman said: "We love a new challenge. We have been given a puzzle and a blank piece of paper to work it out and we will pull the omnium apart to see what it took to win it - that is our favourite part of the game."

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