Victoria Pendleton reflected on a track World Championships which brought Britain a record nine gold medals and declared "we made it look too easy".
Pendleton formed a key part of the team's success in Manchester over the last week, claiming two golds of her own in addition to silver in yesterday's women's keirin.
And after both male and female Brits dominated in a variety of disciplines, Pendleton believes they have raised expectations to almost unreasonable levels.
"I just didn't want it to end here," she said after her silver medal.
"I hope I haven't disappointed too many people who were expecting to see another Union Jack go up.
"Perhaps we have made it look too easy - it's not easy."
The 27-year-old from Hitchin will only compete in the sprint at the Olympics in Beijing and despite admitting to being disappointed at her last-gasp failure to win a third event, she is delighted with her efforts in that race.
"Obviously, I'm a bit disappointed with a silver medal [in the keirin] but I've had a great run and it had to end somewhere.
"I'm really pleased I won the sprint because that's the important one, the Olympic event," she said.
"The rest is like a bonus - if you can win those they make you feel good about yourself."
British Cycling performance director Dave Brailsford, meanwhile, admitted that an early controversy in the competition had seen him hit the lowest of ebbs.
Brailsford was informed by the International Cycling Union on Wednesday morning that 35-year-old Rob Hayles, an Olympic silver medallist, was found to have an haematocrit level over the 50% deemed healthy by the UCI, who introduced the test over 10 years ago in a bid to limit the use of EPO.
Hayles had his licence revoked pending further tests, but Brailsford believes his innocence will be proved.
"I questioned my job then - for 24 hours I was going to quit," he said.
"I thought, 'I'm not doing this any more, we're pushing them too hard, we're too good, everyone's going to think it's been done under false pretences'.
"I just don't want to be in a situation where out of the blue everything just disappears and it's out of my control.
"It's not me - I haven't lied. I haven't done anything wrong."
Brailsford added: "If, as I suspected, Rob hadn't done anything - even then I couldn't see how we could come out of the situation with any grace."
More news from SportingLife.com



