The national track endurance coach said Australia has pioneered the women’s madison and is ideally placed to reap the reward in the two-rider track event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“It never should have been taken out in the first place,” said Gilmore, who won an Olympic silver medal in the madison in 2000.

“I have a passion for the event and thought it was silly decision at the time because it took away an income stream.

“A lot of those madison riders were able to secure six-day contracts but it cut that off at the knees. After the madison was cut from the Olympic program, the bottom fell out of the six-day scene so it had a huge knock-on effect.

“I had a madison program with guys like Leigh Howard, Cam Meyer and Glenn O’Shea and took them to six-day events as part of their development but that all stopped when the event went out of the Olympic Games because Cycling Australia were not going to fund an activity not directly linked to an Olympic discipline.”

Australia was among the first countries to introduce a national women’s madison championship, since when it has become a world championship event.

Tasmanian Georgia Baker and Danielle McKinnery, of South Australia, claimed the 2016 national title.

South Australian Annette Edmondson and Tasmanian Amy Cure won the 2016 Oceania madison championship and, after winning the event at the Los Angeles world cup, Cure and South Australian Alex Manly had to settle for bronze after twice crashing when the 120-lap (30 kilometre) event debuted on the world championship program in Hong Kong in April.

Belgians Jolien D'hoore and Lotte Kopecky claimed the world title having also won the first-ever women's madison at last year’s European championships.

Gilmore, who is based at the Tasmanian Institute of Sport in Launceston, believes Australia’s leading role in the women’s event gives it an advantage over rival cycling nations.

“We were one of the first nations to take the leap and have the women’s madison as a national championship and a lot of European countries are now doing similar things on the back of that.

“We are not behind as far as quality goes. Just look at the girls in our system – Amy, Nettie, Georgia, Alex Manly, Danielle McKinnery, Josie Talbot and other Tasmanians Macey Stewart and Lauren Perry. 

“They are all really well-rounded cyclists with bunch race ability and hold us in good stead for this and the next Olympic cycle.

“This presents a real opportunity for them because they no longer just pigeon-hole themselves into team pursuit positions. They still need to have that team pursuit pedigree but it opens doors at Olympics, world champs and world cups and also opens another revenue stream because they don’t have to think they’ve got to go to Europe to be road riders.”