Brailsford salutes 'awesome' Pendleton
British Cycling performance director Dave Brailsford believes a mixed performance at the World Championships is a wake-up call for the team.
Last year in Manchester, Britain won nine golds, but Brailsford's youthful squad won just two titles in Poland.
"We got used to winning a lot, and when you don't win a lot it hurts," said Brailsford. "But it's a good wake-up call. It really energises us.
"It's a question of debriefing and regrouping and then really pushing on."
Britain finished third in the medal table, with two golds, four silvers and three bronzes, behind Australia and France.
The women's team pursuit trio of Wendy Houvenaghel, Joanna Rowsell and Lizzie Armitstead won gold on day two.
And Victoria Pendleton - GB's only defending individual champion present - successfully defended her women's sprint title on day four in Pruszkow.
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Our foot is not to the floor and I think that's important
British Cycling performance director Dave Brailsford
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Brailsford suggested his team would now have a psychological advantage in that they would now be chasing rather than defending titles.
"It's a good thing that some of the world titles are resting on other people's shoulders now and they become the hunted and we become the hunters," he said.
After Manchester, Britain went to the Olympics in Beijing and won seven golds, but many of those Olympians - Sir Chris Hoy, Rebecca Romero and Bradley Wiggins - were not in Poland, which gave Brailsford further cause for encouragement.
"A lot of the other nations are at full gas here - this is their Olympic team," he added.
"They're pushing really hard but they haven't really moved that much forward - that's quite encouraging.
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"We've given it 110%, but our foot is not to the floor and I think that's important."
Brailsford made a special point of praising Pendleton's sprint triumph, describing it as "phenomenal".
"If you look at the record books and see how many Olympic champions have come back to the next world championships and retained their world title, very, very few people have done it," he said.
"I don't think anybody did it from Athens and Vic's the only one from Beijing - so that's pretty impressive."
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