Anna Meares has refuted suggestions she is planning a shock retirement, declaring she remains intent on riding onto the next Olympics in Rio de Janeiro but indicating this may be her last appearance at a Commonwealth Games.

With a gold and a silver medal in the women's time trial and sprint respectively the 30-year-old surpassed Kathy Watt as Australia's most successful female cyclist in the history of the Commonwealth Games.

She also had the honour of carrying the Australian flag and leading the team into the opening ceremony last Wednesday at Celtic Park, and there has been increasing speculation that Glasgow could be her career swansong.

Meares, however, emphatically shot down that talk on Sunday night, when asked whether she was planning to retire.

"God no. I'm not done yet," she said. "Who said that?"

Quite a few people, it turns out, although clearly no one properly in the know.

Meares' comments, as it happens, came minutes after she ran into former arch rival Victoria Pendleton, who has since retired and is working as a television commentator here.

With Pendleon stationed behind the barrier separating media and athletes they spoke at length, reacquainting themselves after Meares' dramatic win over the English cyclist in the London 2012 sprint final.

"Someone said she was here commentating for Channel 10 and I thought they were pulling my leg and when I walked past I'm like 'I know that face'," Meares said.

"I was just like 'Oh my God', how crazy is that?' It was just fantastic, so good to see her."

While she won't be following Pendleton into a career as a pundit just yet, what is on the cards, and was always a likely scenario, is that Meares will call time on her brilliant career before the next Commonwealth Games.

It means her surprise defeat in Sunday's sprint final to training partner Stephanie Morton was in all likelihood her competitive farewell to the event.

She has a long and rich history at the Commonwealth Games, first competing as a teenager in Manchester in 2002 when her sister Kerrie won gold in the time trial, and gathering a tally of five gold, two silver and one bronze in four Games.

Asked whether she would go on to make a fifth appearance in 2018, when the Games will be held in her home state of Queensland she said:

"That maybe not so much. I don't know if this will be my last Comm Games or not. I know I will definitely be going through to Rio, that's just where my projection is, my plan is.

Meares narrowly edged by Morton:

"It's always tempting because it's the Gold Coast Games in 2018, I'm just not sure if I'll be there or not."

She was denied a sixth career gold by 23-year-old Morton but after breaking down in tears when ushered up to the top of the podium by her teammate, Meares reflected on the moment, and her career, rather than the loss.

"Steph broke me. I was happy to stay on my second place podium and that absolutely broke me," she said. "That was very big of her to share that.

"This is my eighth medal from nine starts over 12 years of competing at the Commonwealth Games. How could I be disappointed in that?"

What Meares will be doing the next time the sprint final is run, in 2018, is anybody's guess but she offered a cheeky hint.

"I'll be fighting with Vicki in the media scrum."