AUSTRALIAN cycling's sole medallist at these Olympics, Anna Meares, believes it could take years for the gap between dominant Great Britain and the rest of the world to be bridged on the track, but an overhaul of her country's top riding stocks would kick-start the process.

Britain won seven of the 10 gold medals on offer at the track this Olympics, compared with Australia's lone silver. This, after the Australian cyclists cleaned up in Athens in 2004 with six gold medals out of the country's total haul of 10. In Beijing, the British won 12 medals in total at the velodrome, Spain was the next best with three - a gold, silver and bronze.

"I think you're going to see an overhaul in terms of the riders that are going to be competing from now on," Meares said after winning her medal in the women's sprint on the last day of competition.

"With Shane Kelly retiring and Ryan Bayley taking a break. I'm not sure what Mark French is up to, but we're going to go through a rebuilding phase and a lot of juniors are coming through. So we may be down the ranks with the position of all the countries in the next few years, but hopefully by London [Olympics in 2012] we'll be back up there to challenge the Brits.

"I can only speak on behalf of the sprint program, that's all that I really deal with. And as far as I'm concerned we've got the best coach in the world [Martin Barras], the best program with the Australian Institute of Sport."

The British cycling team has had enormous financial backing through the National Lottery, which, according to Meares, meant that some countries could not hope to catch up. Australian cycling great Shane Sutton was also lured to Britain to be head cycling coach on a reported $1 million salary.