All Neil Fachie wanted after hirpling off his bike at the side of the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome track was to find his three-year-old son in the crowd.

For the previous few minutes, as his heart burned, lungs roared and legs ached during four flat-out laps, the 42-year-old just kept repeating the little boy’s name. “Fraser, Fraser, Fraser.”

“The last two laps of the race, he was all I was thinking about,” Fachie told BBC Sport Scotland. “He was the motivation. Just saying his name over and over while I was seeing stars and ready to collapse was what I needed.”

The mantra kept the Aberdonian pumping and, ultimately, took him all the way to a sixth Commonwealth Games gold medal after first Australia, then favourites Wales, failed to better Scotland’s time.

It was the nation’s first cycling medal on the first day of the competition, and a second followed when the women’s team sprint trio of Lauren Bell, Iona Moir and Maddy Silcock saw off the Australians in the bronze-medal race.

NHS physio Silcock led them off, before Moir took over. Then double world medallist Bell maintained the pace until the end to claim a podium place.

“It’s one of those things you imagine when you’re doing a hard session,” Bell told BBC Sport Scotland. “You have nerves by you’re just out there finding joy in riding for your nation. That takes the nerves off and luckily we’ve come away with bronze.”

No Scottish athlete has ever won more golds than Fachie.

Not Duncan Scott, who tells the spectators to ‘haud yer wheesht’ in a recorded message before every race here. Not Alex ‘Tattie Marshall. Not even Hoy, who was cheering as hard as ever other Scot in the room.

Fachie knew where he stood. Knew the accolade he could claim.

But he did not think he was capable of achieving it here in the Tandem B 1,000m event. After all, he effectively retired after the Paris Paralympics two years ago.

Life since then has been spent with wife Lora and toddler Fraser, visiting a velodrome now and then and working 9-5 for Amazon. Training happens once a week when life allows or, more candidly, when he can be bothered.

“I had walked away from cycling,” the four-time Paralympic medallist said. “If it hadn’t been a home Games, I wouldn’t be here. I thought ‘let’s go and say our farewells’ but I genuinely didn’t expect to win gold because I’m not training much.”

And yet Fachie found himself standing on a podium in Glasgow on Thursday afternoon, lip quivering, and listening to Flower of Scotland.

Beside the diminutive dynamo was the hulking figure of English pilot Aaron Pope, who had never been on a tandem before this year.

“With the amount he’s won, he would be fully entitled to be apprehensive but he jumped in straight at the deep end,” Pope said. “On several occasions, we’ve almost binned it, and he just goes, ‘Yeah, it’s all right. Bad things happen’.

“He’s obviously a good bike rider, but he’s just a far better bloke. He’s juggling his family, a full-time job, and he’s still coming in every Wednesday – not overly happy necessarily all the time, but always giving me everything he can. So, in return, it’s easy to put in the work for him.”

Pope’s other responsibility on Thursday was to help visually-impared Fachie find Lora and Fraser, once the old man had leapt off the bike and gambolled up the steep banking towards the crowd.

“I could have been wandering that stand for a while trying to find them,” said the Scot, wryly. “Giving Fraser a big hug was was the best thing. I’m dying to go up and show him my medal soon as well.”

Fachie will be back here on Saturday. He doesn’t expect to win the tandem sprint, but he didn’t expect to win the kilo either.

But what he does expect is that it will be the last race of a career that has delivered more than he ever imagined it might.

“I don’t see any way I’m racing beyond Saturday,” he said. “Things happen in life, but I’m walking away saying that’s it, because there’s no better way to go out than racing here in front of a home crowd. It is the end. There’s no doubt.”