Britain won an incredible seven out of 10 events at the Beijing Games in 2008, with Mark Cavendish the only member of the team to return from the Laoshan Velodrome without a medal.

But the UCI have announced there will be a maximum of one athlete per nation per event in London and the qualification programme will include the European Championships, which have previously been only an under-23 event.

Britain were the dominant force in China and had already seen their medal hopes diminish by a radical overhaul of the track programme to create gender parity.

The move for gender parity was welcomed by many but came at a price, as the UCI opted to remove traditional endurance events the individual pursuits, points races and Madison from the programme.

In Beijing, Sir Chris won three titles, Bradley Wiggins two and Victoria Pendleton and Rebecca Romero also claimed gold.

Sir Chris and Wiggins were members of the gold medal-winning team sprint and team pursuit squads, respectively.

Britain secured gold and silver medals in the men's sprint and men's keirin, with Sir Chris finishing ahead of Jason Kenny and Ross Edgar, respectively, as well as the women's individual pursuit, where Wendy Houvenaghel finished second to Romero.

Steven Burke was third behind Wiggins in the men's individual pursuit and Chris Newton took bronze in the men's points race.

Such dominance was unprecedented and will now not be seen again after the qualification reforms.

"The changes will assist us developing the sport around the world," Pat McQuaid, the UCI President, said.

"We’re limited in the number of riders and the number of events, so we have no option but to put this limit on participation."

McQuaid denied that the move was aimed at curbing British success.

"There is no reason why they can't have equally as much success in London," he said.

Shane Sutton, Britain's track head coach, refused to condemn the decision.

"We've got guys who can win any amount of medals as we showed in Beijing but even if there's only one British rider in the event we're about going for gold and the best rider will step up based on merit," he said.

"The rules are set, we have to adhere to them so our attitude is 'let's get on with it'."


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