Battle of the Olympic Champions in Melbourne: Jason Queally
British Cycling's Larry Hickmott talks to Sydney Olympic Gold medallist Jason Queally.
Wearing the colours of World Champion for the first time in his career, Jason Queally lines up alongside GB teammate and Commonwealth Games rival.
With the Kilometre cycling event having been unceremoniously dumped from the Olympics by the international powers that be, the riders whose lives and sporting careers revolve around that event are now having to cope with realigning their goals in the World's major competitions. One such rider is Jason Queally from Chorley who won the Kilometre Olympic title in Sydney 2000.
Having been selected for the England Commonwealth Games Cycling team to travel to Melbourne in 2006, Jason is expected to ride two events in Melbourne, the Team Sprint and the Kilometre. "I've never been a Commonwealth Games champion and I feel my best chance is in the Kilometre" Jason explained as he prepared last week for his first major competition for the Winter, the UCI World Cup in Moscow which starts on Friday.
"That will be my major target in Melbourne" Jason added. With the form he has showed since Athens in 2004, success in Melbourne would not come as a surprise to many who see the former Olympic Champion as one of the key favourites. In Athens, Jason was going better than he ever has but due to the team having no less than four World Class riders scrapping for selection in this event prior to the Olympics, Jason was unlucky to miss out on the Kilometre. Then, despite recording the second fastest time in the Team Sprint Olympic competition, the GB team went away from Athens empty handed as they were knocked out of the competition by Germany.
It was a huge blow to Jason and to this day, you can still feel his deep felt disappointment at how the events went for him and the team in Athens. Things got better in Los Angeles when Jason was selected for the Kilometre but still had to deal with yet more disappointment when he lost the Gold medal by a few hundredths of a second to Dutchman Theo Bos. He did however recover from that by winning Gold in the Team Sprint with the Great Britain team and went away from the World Championships with a Silver and Gold medal. The success at the Worlds though just added to his frustration at the events in Athens but it wasn't something he could afford to dwell on and he soon had to draw a line under the 2004 Olympics and look to the future.
Despite having represented Great Britain for more than a decade, Jason shows no sign of slowing down and says of his form right now, "ever since Athens and Los Angeles, I feel I have been improving even though I'm 35. And if I can continue to improve on that level, all the better." 
The Silver medallists from Sydney 2000 are travelling to Moscow to kick off their winter campaign to try and retain the Team Sprint Championship won by GB this year in Los Angeles. Pictured are Craig MacLean, Jason Queally and Chris Hoy.
Talking about the lead up to the Commonwealth Games in March, and the UCI World Track Cups that come prior to that, Jason explained "most of us will be going to the World Cups on the back of base conditioning training and then those of us in the sprint group will continue with that until around six weeks before the Commonwealth Games when the training changes and you specialise for the event you are doing."
"The Moscow World Cup is just an opportunity for me to have a run out with Chris and Craig in the Team Sprint because it's a long time since we've ridden together at this level as a trio" he explained. "I'll also be riding the Kilometre to hopefully qualify a Great Britain spot for the World Championships" he added with a wry smile.
This is because Jason won't know if he gets a ride at the Worlds until the Commonwealth Games are completed with whoever fills the top two spots in the Commonwealth Games Kilometre competition getting the nod for the Worlds event in Bordeaux. And it won't be easy for the World Championship Kilometre silver medallist because in the Commonwealth Games there will be at least three riders from Britain looking to win that title.
Jason, and the others in the team, also realise that those riders from the Commonwealth will be up against it at the Worlds in France where Jason says having to maintain his peak for three weeks as well as battle jet leg will not be easy.
Next year's Worlds though, and even the Commonwealth Games, are but stepping stones for Jason. Important in their own right and great events to win but it's the Olympics that drive Jason. Having been an Olympic champion, (Sydney 2000), he has seen just how big the rewards are and he admits at the end of the day, its Beijing in 2008 that he has his sights on. The focus event there will be the Team Sprint, the very event that Great Britain have won the World Title in twice (2002, 2005).
"For me, the Olympics is the be all and end all and the Team Sprint in Beijing is my focus" he admits openly. If a World Championship jersey comes on the back of that, fantastic, but I think for Chris, Craig, Jamie and me, Beijing is the long term goal."