Wendy Houvenhagel, the forgotten girl of the British cycling team, won Britain’s fifth gold medal at the opening World Cup event of the season in Manchester last night. While Rebecca Romero has not appeared at a major track championships since winning gold in the individual pursuit in Beijing, Houvenhagel, the silver medallist in a British one-two, has been quietly working her way towards London 2012, despite not knowing which event she will be able to contest.

Houvenhagel produced a devastating ride in the final of the individual pursuit to overhaul Josephine Tomic of Australia a lap before the end of the 4km ride. The problem for the former Army dentist, who only graduated to the elite squad at the age of 31, is that the individual pursuit looks certain to be dropped for London, leaving one of the potential favourites for gold to concentrate on the team pursuit.

“The new programme hasn’t been ratified yet,” said Houvenhagel. “But I was devastated at the news because I’ve been training for it for the last three years and I wanted to continue with it all the way to London.”

A pursuit team anchored by Romero and Houvenhagel, the two best female pursuers in the world, would have been a formidable proposition in London, but Romero has chosen to adapt her skills to the time trial on the road. Even so, the British trio of Houvenhagel, Lizzie Armitstead and Jo Rowsell will be favourites for gold in today’s team pursuit event in Manchester. Armitstead confirmed her promise by taking gold in the points race late last night, Britain’s seventh overall.

After taking sprint gold on the opening day of the meeting, Victoria Pendleton failed narrowly to add to her tally in the 500m time trial, which is not her specialist event. The 29-year-old was still the first of the 20 competitors to dip under 34 seconds, much to the delight of an ecstatic home crowd, only to be denied her second gold by Anna Meares, a former 500m Olympic and world champion whose career could have ended in a horrific accident last year.

The Australian broke her neck and was warned she might never ride again. She defied medical opinion and returned in time for Beijing but was beaten by Pendleton in the sprint final. Last night, though, she reminded the local champion that she can expect a fight all the way to London 2012. “Vicky is the best sprinter in the world and this is her home track, so to beat her here is very special,” said the 26-year-old. “I’ve had a lot to overcome in the last year both physically and mentally, but I’m starting to find my feet again.”

Pendleton will also be kept up to the mark by the new generation of riders, two of whom, Jessica Varnish and Becky James, finished a highly creditable fourth in the team sprint yesterday. Varnish turns 19 later this month; James is just 17 and gave Pendleton a real fright in the national championships on this track a week ago. Pendleton refers to the girls as her “protégées” but there will be a few anxious glances over her shoulder over the next 1,000 days of the countdown to London.

Chris Hoy’s rivals would be forgiven for finding alternative employment, so dominant has the Scot been in his first major competition since suffering a hip injury eight months ago. Matt Crampton, beaten in the final of the sprint last night as Hoy, inset, claimed his second gold — and Britain’s sixth — of the meeting, believes the Scot is in better form now than he was in Beijing. “He’s reinvented himself once more,” said the 23-year-old. “He sets the benchmark every day but I’ll just keep chipping away.” Jason Kenny took bronze to complete a British clean sweep.

“These younger guys are inspiring me and I’m grateful to them,” said Hoy. “Hopefully, I can beat them off until London and they can take over for 2016.” Crampton has lifted himself into the top bracket in the past two weeks but, leading from the front or coming from behind, Hoy remained unruffled. In the decisive race, Crampton tried everything to upset the rhythm of the Olympic champion without getting close to landing a real blow. Forget 1,000 days; the champion looks ready to defend his Olympic titles right now.

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