Preview: National Track Championships

20-24 October 2009 | Tickets: Ticketmaster or call 0844 847 2425 | Start Sheet (170kb pdf)

Just one of the battles spectators might well see at the Senior National Track Championships, Sir Chris Hoy (four times an Olympic Champion) versus Jason Kenny (Olympic Silver Medallist).

Tickets Still Available

Tickets for the National Track Championships are still available. The event is the first major track cycling event of the season and is your chance to see Olympic and World Champion riders battle for supremacy against the stars of tomorrow at Manchester Velodrome to prove who has what it takes to become National Champions. Tickets are available for the 22, 23 and 24 October (Note: Oct 20 and 21 are free entry for spectators, due to limited race programmes on those days). For tickets, visit Ticketmaster or call 0844 847 2425 to book.

Preview: 2009 National Track Championships

It's a mark of the strength of Track racing in this country that many of the World's best riders will be racing at the Senior National Track Championships starting in Manchester on October 20.  There's also a compelling sub-plot as the Great Britain riders take on the young guns looking to make their mark. All in all, it looks like the national championship week will be one of the best for many a year.

Coming the week before the Track Cycling World Cup, the riders in the national team will be looking to fine-tune their form. Chris Hoy, speaking at the launch of his autobiography, said “it is good to have the nationals as a hit out just before the World Cup just to get into the swing of the tactics and so on because I am sure it’s going to be a very tough nationals with the likes of Jason Kenny, Matt Crampton, David Daniels and Ross Edgar. There is going to be a whole host of guys fighting for that Gold medal”. Also in the men's sprint mix will be Paralympic Gold medallist Jody Cundy, Christian Lyte, Peter Mitchell and teenage sensation John Paul.

Turning to the Female sprint events, the World’s Queen of the sprint, Victoria Pendleton (Olympic and World champion), will be racing once again. Victoria has always be a great supporter of the championships, but this time she faces perhaps the toughest opposition yet in domestic racing, with her rivals including the constantly improving Jessica Varnish, double Junior World champion Becky James, plus Helen Scott, Charlene Joiner and Janet Birkmyre.

In the female endurance events, the competition is just as tough with a great line-up including World Championship medallist Lizzie Armitstead, Olympic Silver medallist and world champion Wendy Houvenaghel, World champion Joanna Rowsell, multi-world and Paralympic champion Sarah Storey, Kate Cullen plus top young riders Alex Greenfield and Dani King.

Three times Lizzie Armitstead stepped up onto the podium at the 2009 World Track Championships and after an impressive road season, she turns her attention to the track.

The Men’s Endurance events will certainly be tougher than last year when Chris Newton toyed with his rivals to win the two bunch race titles on offer. Joining Newton on the start will be Steven Burke and Olympic champions Ed Clancy and Geraint Thomas.  Also lining up will be top road professional Ben Swift, Academy riders Mark Christian, Alex Dowsett, Andrew Fenn, Luke Rowe, Erick Rowsell, and many of the top juniors. These endurance bunch races are sure to be brutal affairs and a great spectacle.

The race programme sees racing over five days starting on October 20 (Tuesday) and as well as the title races there will also be tandem racing and madisons for the Under 16 and Junior riders. British Cycling will be covering the championships with up to the minute reports and photos.

Programme Overview

This is an overview of the schedule - on Wednesday there's just a single evening session. On the succeeding days there are two sessions. Session start times are indicated below the day and date.