Matthew Crampton

July 19-23; Athens Olympic Velodrome

The Under 23 sprinter who did some scintillating rides at the Commonwealths and 2006 Track Worlds admits after last year's Europeans he wasn't looking forward to this years but after his performances at the Worlds where he has seen a big improvement over the winter, he is now well up for Athens which admits looks 'a bit special' having had the Olympics on it.

Matt Crampton After this year's Track World Championships, Matthew has had a break but was a little apprehensive that his form now would not be what it needs to be but says that the time at Newport has been good. Despite several European and World Championships not to mention a Commonwealth Games, he admits he's still getting nervous.

"I still get nervous at the nationals so I don't suppose you really lose that feeling prior to a competition."

Right: Matt leads Jason Kenny during training.

In Athens, Matt will be racing three events, Sprint, Keirin and Kilometre. "After Vienna (where he won three events at a challenge meeting), I thought I'd give the Kilo a go and see if I can post a good time. If anything as a preparation race."

The Under 23 category if anything highlights the differences between the now and previous years in the sprint programme. At the moment, Matt can't ride the team sprint because we don't have enough senior under 23 sprinters but that will change in a few years as the riders in the various programmes in place now come through the ranks and provide the basis for future Team Sprint teams.

It is the Team Sprint through where Matt has shown how fast he is. "I hadn't really thought much about the Team Sprint until the World Cups last year and the Games of course. So its become a big focus now for me and the Juniors look like they have a good team for this years Worlds."

His focus for now though is the Europeans and after a 5th and 4th place at last years Europeans, the pressure is on to progress which means medals! "That would be nice" he replies. "Shane has set me a target for top 4s and its going to be a tough competition. There are a lot of junior riders who have come up like Maximilian Levy (Ger) and Kevin Sireau (Fra) so its going to be a good competition."

Matthew explains that the Europeans does come in the middle of the year, out of season now, but does help to split the year up and gives him a good international competition to gain experience. It's the latter point that he says is important because there are now a lot of fast riders out there who can do fast 200's so it comes down to tactics as well.

"Tactically is where there has been a bit of a breakdown so its good to have Jan here and have the screen up and go through the videos. I did some racing with Jan on Monday and that was good, because its one thing watching somebody ride and some rides you see will stick in your mind and you'll think that's the way to do it. And then you ride against Jan and its all very close and tight. Very technical with quick little movements and good fun."

Talking about the Challenge Trophy where he was the sole British rider and came away with three wins, he says "that was when I was just starting to get everything going properly there so it was good to come away with a result. The Europeans will be a bit different though."