Hoy sees room for improvement

Sir Chris Hoy is sure Great Britain's team sprint squad is moving in the right direction as he prepares to turn his focus to individual competition at this week's Track Cycling World Championships in Apeldoorn, Holland.

After emulating the team pursuit squad by picking up a bronze medal, Hoy, Jason Kenny and Matt Crampton declared themselves satisfied with third place behind France and Germany.

"There's a lot of work to be done, but it's encouraging," said Hoy "We missed out on the final by two hundredths of a second which is not a great deal."

He added: "Pre-Beijing we didn't win the world title; we haven't won a world title since 2005.

"I don't think we have any weak links when we get it right, but so far we haven't managed to get all three together on the same day, going well like we did in Beijing and that's the key to being a strong team."

Britain fielded something of a makeshift team in the four-man, four-kilometre pursuit.

Already without Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas, who finished second in Belgian semi-classic Dwars door Vlaanderen yesterday, Ed Clancy withdrew from the medal ride off after struggling in the heat ride following a recent illness. Sam Harrison stepped in and helped Steven Burke, Andy Tennant and Peter Kennaugh to take bronze behind Australia and Russia.

Harrison said: "It went pretty well. Stepping into a really good team, it was all made easy."

British Cycling later confirmed Clancy would take no further part in the World Championships due to illness and therefore would not defend the omnium title he won in 2010.

Harrison was withdrawn from Friday's non-Olympic individual pursuit and will now take Clancy's place in the omnium, which begins on Friday.