As we all know, 2016 is a huge year for the Great Britain Cycling Team. It is an Olympic and Paralympic year and we also have a home track world championships in London in March as well.
With big events on the horizon, it was really important for us to kick-off the year in the best way possible – so I’m very pleased with our performance at the final round of the 2015/16 UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Hong Kong earlier this month.
The team picked up eight medals in total – including gold medals for the men’s team sprint and Laura Trott in the omnium – and those efforts sealed overall victory for Great Britain in both the event and the entire 2015/16 world cup series.
It was also great to see Mark Cavendish back on the track for Great Britain. Mark is as hungry for success as ever and his fourth place finish in the omnium was very encouraging.
From one of Great Britain’s most successful riders, to one of our newest! Emily Nelson made her second world cup appearance and came away with two medals – a silver in the team pursuit and a bronze in the points race - a terrific world cup for the 19-year-old.
As well as the medal haul, which is always great to see, the team also comes back from Hong Kong with some crucial world championship and Olympic qualification points.
There’s still work to be done to secure some of those Rio places – which creates a huge double incentive for the team to be at their best at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in London in March.
Before those championships in London, there are also rainbow jerseys up for grabs in the mud of Belgium later this month.
We’ve named an 18-strong squad of riders for the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Zolder from 30-31 January and a number of the team are in excellent form.
Many of them will also get another opportunity to lay down a marker this weekend as the final round of the 2015/16 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup takes place in Hoogerheide, Netherlands.
Shane
