As I walked into the Laoshan Velodrome to see Chris Hoy win his first gold medal on Friday, I noticed an arresting vast bronze sculpture on a cliff overlooking the flying saucer arena.

It honoured great names from the history of the sport: Dunlop (the tyre pioneer), Starley (who designed the first chain and gearing which allowed both wheels to be the same size, ending the Penny Farthing era), Madison (named after the US president who gave his name to Madison Square Garden and to the race of this name which was first helf there), and at the bottom: Thomas Macmillan.

Who he, I thought. So I asked the very helpful staff in the velodrome. I said I knew of a Kirkpatrick Macmillan, from Dumfries, who actually invented the bicycle. Could it be he?

She promised to find out, for the following day. Sure enough, Kirkpatrick it should have been.

"I called the sculptor," she said. "We're very sorry. He says it is a mistake. But thank you for bringing it to our attention." But the honesty and acceptance of blame was refreshing. They truly are charming. Loss of face? Not at all.

Imagine my astonishment when the next day, the sculpture had been changed. The letters, at least a foot high had been changed. The whole word "Thomas" had been removed. It now read Kirkpatrick Macmillan.

Macmillan was a blacksmith, and rode his new contraption, before Dunlop's development, all the way to Glasgow, where he knocked over a child in the Gorbals, and was fined five shillings (25 pence).

The story goes that the judge was so impressed by the machine that he summoned Macmillan to his house for a demonstration. He rode it round the courtyard, and his lordship was so struck by the machine that he paid the blacksmith's fine himself.

The report of the case in the Glasgow Herald of the day dates Macmillan's invention in a historic concept, and thus he is recognised as the inventor.

"He built better than he knew," was his epitaph.

So Chris Hoy has a 19th-century blacksmith to thank.

More recent technological advances with the bike, in which Britain is a world leader, have provoked espionage here, admitted GB cycle team leader David Brailsford last night.

"We've had more photographs taken of our kit and bikes than anything else," he said "It's part of the game, and we'll keep moving on. We've got to a certain level and our job now is not to rest on our laurels. It's to be relentless."

The 14 medals won are going to be tough to improve on, he said. "But I don't think we should be constrained by this. I don't think we should use it as a benchmark. There will be more investment from UK Sport.

"Cash always helps. There's a certain amount of cash you need to do the job, but it's diminishing returns. I need more to keep my staff. That's one problem I face. It doesn't take a genius to work out that most federations in the world are going to try to poach my staff.

"They've started already. We've all been made some interesting offers this week. Other nations have looked at what we have done, and want to start copying us. There are quite a few countries with quite good funding who are interested in what we are doing. So to keep those guys now from a management point of view presents a very interesting challenge."

Head coach Shane Sutton an Aussie was stated in an Australian newspaper to have resigned with immediate effect. He wants a new job "within the system".

Brailsford later denied this was the case, saying this was not the time to discuss such matters.

Britain's new supremacy is already under threat.