GB Women Pursuing Women's Olympic Spots
February 10, 2008
By Larry Hickmott
Rebecca Romero leads Jo Rowsell and Wendy Houvenaghel during a Team Pursuit effort, the first for over a month.
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. The World Track Cups have seen record numbers of riders entering the events as riders from around the World have their eyes on a place in their national team at the Beijing Olympics.
For the riders in the Great Britain Cycling team, there is one more hurdle to get over before the final phase leading to the World Track Championships in Manchester (March 26-31) and that hurdle is the Copenhagen UCI World Track Cup. Two riders in the team travelling to Copenhagen will be 2007 World Championship Silver medallist Rebecca Romero and twice UCI World Track Cup champion Wendy Houvenaghel.
In 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, you can see the World wide competition to be in the mix in Beijing is fierce.
Both Rebecca and Wendy will in Copenhagen race in the Individual Pursuit event for women over a distance of 3 kilometres (just under 2 miles). So far, both riders have had differing fortunes in the World Track Cups this season. Wendy Houvenaghel was 4th in Sydney and 7th in Beijing whilst Rebecca Romero was 8th in Sydney and 2nd in Beijing. Both are looking for good performances in Copenhagen to accumulate more qualifying points for the Olympics.
A place in the event at the World Championships is not in doubt but being on the plane to Beijing is sure to depend on how they perform in the coming months because rider numbers for the Olympics are limited and GB will only be taking riders they expect to bring home medals, preferably Gold ones. So there is certainly an edge to training as they prepare meticulously under the watchful eye of National Women’s Endurance coach Dan Hunt.
During a session that started at 8am, Dan Hunt goes through the Team Pursuit effort with the riders.
Everyone in the GB team is aware of how critical this period is and that can be felt in the track centre during training. A few months ago, it was expected that Great Britain would field a team in the Team Pursuit for Women at the Copenhagen World Track Cup. Training was put in place and regular sessions on the track would take place to learn the skill required for the team pursuit.
That however will not happen for various reasons. Importantly, the event is not an Olympic event and so priority will be given to the Olympic event, the Women’s Individual Pursuit. Secondly, the team already qualify a spot in the Team Pursuit event at the Track Worlds thanks to being the home nation.
That is a huge bonus for the team in Olympic year.
“I just want the girls in the individual pursuit to focus on that event for now” the national coach Dan Hunt told British Cycling. “I don’t want them to have the psychological load to have to worry about team pursuit and backing up rides. I just want them to focus on getting the Olympic qualifying place secure. I want to get that done and dusted before we starting looking at non-Olympic events.”
“We will contest it (Team Pursuit) at the World Track Championships as its being held after the individual pursuit and at this point in time the girls in the long team for it are Rebecca, Wendy, Joanna Rowsell and Rachel Heal.”
Dan then explained the girls will continue to do Team Pursuit efforts in training simply because its been seen to help them in the individual event. The day I ventured into the Track centre, both Rebecca and Wendy were training for the individual event and then a few days later, in a morning session at 8am, Jo Rowsell joined them for a Team Pursuit session. Rachel Heal was absent due to illness.
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Silver medallist in Majorca at the last UCI World Track Championships was Rebecca Romero who only came to cycling from rowing a few years ago and since starting her cycling career as continue to make a remarkable progress. Already an Olympic medallist in Rowing as well as a former World Champion, Rebecca has sights on making a remarkable return to the Olympic arena but in a completely different sport.
Twice a winner of the UCI World Track Cup for the Women’s Pursuit, Wendy has pulled out some scintillating rides in the last year or so and has been busy preparing at the Manchester Velodrome for the Copenhagen World Track Cup event and the big one that follows, the Manchester UCI Track Worlds.
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UCI World Track Cup Season 2007/08
Los Angeles World Track Cup 2008
Home Page, Sydney World Track Cup 2007
Home Page Beijing World Track Cup
Other GB Member Stories
Chris Hoy Interview Feb 7 - 2008
Newton Chasing Points in Denmark
Craig MacLean's Olympic Ambitions
Chris Hoy looks ahead to the Track Worlds
2007 European Track Championships (Germany)
