Cycling may be the new golf, Dave Brailsford and Sky might have set off in pursuit of the Tour de France and Cav may have recently been voted the overseas sportsman of the Year in Belgium, of all places, but somethings never changes – notably the British National Track Championships.
 
Understated, unheralded and proudly non-commercial the "Nationals"  remain the grass roots event par excellence. A competitors event run purely for the convenience of competitors at the start of their winter season. A very in-house gathering of the faithful and none the worse for that. 
 
Should you wish to watch entrance is free for all but a couple of the evening sessions but the crowd is virtually negligible. The focus is totally on the riders, their bikes and catching up on the gossip in the pitts.
 
Not surprisingly it was in this welcoming and familiar environment in which Sir Chris Hoy decided to make his first competitive appearance in Britain since the Beijing Olympics after a serious hip injury torpedoed his best efforts last season. He chose well.
 
Originally Hoy had set his sights on this week’s World Cup competition in Manchester but such was his form in training in September and early October that he had no qualms in starting a week early at the Nationals where any gremlins would be ironed out away from the public gaze.
 
Not that there appeared to be any. He looked imperious on a chilly Thursday morning when he unleashed a world class time of 9.990sec in the flying 200 metres to qualify in first position for the men’s sprint. Later in the day he marched through the knock-out stages and eventually took the title in style defeating Matt Crampton 2-0 in the final.
 
If anything he was even more impressive in the team sprint when he anchored a Team Sky HD squad to victory in a very swift 43.759, the sort of time that will win a big medal at the World Championships in Copenhagen in March. In qualification Jamie Staff, Jason Kenny and Ross Edgar did the needful with Hoy being drafted in for the final instead of Edgar, a taste of probably GB tactics this season.
 
The flying Scot concluded a highly successful week on the Saturday evening when he crushed the opposition in the keirin, leading from the front as usual. He is back and clearly with no diminution of his powers.
 
Elsewhere there was also a hat-trick of gold medals for Vicky Pendleton, who seems likely to be granted a shot at three gold medals at London 2012 with the UCI poised to confirm changes to the programme next month. 
 
Pendleton finally gave herself a break in the summer after batting on after the Olympics and arrived in Manchester in stunning early season form, decimating the fields in the 500m time-trial, sprint and keirin posting times in the 500m and the flying 200m for the Sprint that were very close to lifetime bests.
 
Geraint Thomas meanwhile was catching the eye in the men's 4km individual pursuit. A key member of the world record breaking team pursuit squad in Beijing, Thomas posed two back to back 4min 18sec with no apparent discomfort. He can undoubtedly go quicker and would seem a very strong gold medal prospect in the World Championships in March.

But two factors could militate against that. As a core member of Team Sky he night be otherwise engaged on the road and even if Brailsford – his boss at Sky and Team GB – decided an assault on the Worlds is indicated is there much point in targeting an event that seems certain to be dropped from the Olympic programme?
 
The answer is an emphatic yes. The 4km is still one of the classic events and an absolute pure test of class and ability. If Thomas concentrates on it and can bring home a gold it would be a huge boost to his confidence on the track and road. It's a prize worth chasing.

The multi-talented Brendan Gallagher writes for the Daily Telegraph, covering a variety of sports, including rugby union, cycling and basketball