GB Set for Final World Track Cup
Posted February 1
By Larry Hickmott
Gold in Beijing -- what every country is hoping for come August at the Olympics. The British have already had a taste of Gold (Team Pursuit pictured) in the Beijing UCI World Track Cup in 2007 but no-one is resting on their laurels and a large team of British riders will be heading for Denmark in two weeks for the final World Track Cup.
There is no doubt that this international track season has a special edge to it and that is all down to the Olympics in Beijing this year. The UCI World Track Cups have seen record numbers of riders entering events as riders from around the World have their eyes on a place in their national team at the Beijing Olympics.
So much is at stake for those aiming to be at the Olympics because qualifying places for nations in events for Beijing is very limited. Hence, competition is quite fierce and all the UCI World Track Cups have seen much bigger than normal fields.
By way of example, take the Women’s Pursuit where only the UCI World Cup winner (2007/08), World Champion 2008, B World Champion and the top nine ranked riders (12 riders in all) will get a ride in Beijing. When you look at how many riders have been entering the Women’s IP event at the various World Cups, between 29 and 37, you can see the World wide competition to be in the mix in Beijing is fierce.
Silver for Britain's Rebecca Romero at the Beijing World Track Cup (Women's Individual Pursuit) and now her goal is the World Track Championships in Manchester and then the Olympics with the Copenhagen World Cup an important stepping stone to learn and move forward towards those goals.
It also means that the UCI World Track Championships competition in Manchester will be far more competitive that normal (if that is possible!) with so much riding on the results outside of the medals and rainbow jerseys. For track cyclists and invariably their nation, an Olympic place is a treasured prize where nations spend huge amounts of money for success and the battle for these qualifying points has been raging all winter.
For the riders in the Great Britain Cycling team, Copenhagen is one more hurdle for them to get over before the final phase leading to the World Track Championships in Manchester (March 26-31). The GB Cycling Team started their campaign to qualify places for the Beijing Olympics by sending a large team to the Sydney UCI World Track Cup and then continued that with a successful competition at the Beijing UCI World Track Cup and even in LA, where the team sent only a handful of riders, Chris Newton came back with a medal.
Success so far for GB has been good but the team know they cannot rest on their laurels and that in order to try and ensure they are on track to meet their Medal targets for Beijing, they need to ensure they have riders on the start line. That means making sure that first and foremost Great Britain earns a place in the target events and secondly, that the riders most likely to medal in those also have enough individual Olympic qualifying points for them to be eligible for selection for GB.
Medal Tally So Far For GB
SYDNEY UCI WORLD TRACK CUP
Gold: Team Pursuit (Newton, Wiggins, Clancy, Cummings)
Gold: Chris Hoy (Men's Keirin)
Gold: Victoria Pendleton (Women's Keirin)
Silver: Ross Edgar (Men's Keirin)
Bronze: Chris Hoy (Sprint)
Silver for Victoria Pendleton (left) to add to all her other medals so far.
BEIJING UCI WORLD TRACK CUP
Gold: Team Pursuit (Manning, Thomas, Clancy, Cummings)
Gold: Keirin (Chris Hoy)
Gold: Bradley Wiggins (Men's Ind Pursuit)
Silver: Madison (Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish)
Silver: Chris Newton (Men's Points)
Silver: Rebecca Romero (Women's Ind Pursuit)
Silver: Victoria Pendleton (Women's Sprint)
Bronze: Team Sprint (Hoy, MacLean, Queally)
LOS ANGELES UCI WORLD TRACK CUP
Bronze: Chris Newton (Men's Points)
With the final UCI World Track Cup in Copenhagen in two weeks, the final push for GB and the other nations is on to score Olympic qualifying points for rider and country. Everyone in the GB team is aware of how critical this period is and that can be felt in the track centre during training at Manchester.
During the coming weeks, British Cycling.org.uk will be bringing you interviews and features from the track centre as the British team gather together for one last push in the World Track Cup campaign and in Copenhagen for British Cycling will be Gerry McManus sending us pictures of the action.
Bronze for the Team Sprint trio of Chris Hoy, Jason Queally and Craig MacLean in Beijing. GB will be fielding two Team Sprint teams in Copenhagen, one in GB colours and the other for Science in Sport.
The team for Copenhagen will be:
GREAT BRITAIN
Paul Manning
Rob Hayles
Chris Newton
Geraint Thomas
Ed Clancy
Steven Burke
Rebecca RomeroChris Hoy
Jamie Staff
Craig MacLean
Anna Blyth
SCIENCE IN SPORT
Matt Crampton
Ross Edgar
Jason Kenny
Jason Queally
Wendy Houvenaghel
Victoria Pendleton
Shanaze Reade
TEAM 100% ME
Jonny Bellis
Peter Kennaugh
RELATED LINKS
British Cycling World Championships Home Page
Copenhagen World Track Cup Website
Rider Features
Craig MacLean Interview
Jamie Staff Interview
Shanaze Reade Interview
Hoy Looking forward to Home Worlds
