Team aiming for early Olympic qualification points at Melbourne and Cali events
The Great Britain team has announced the riders who will be competing in the next two track World Cup Classics, in Melbourne, Australia on December 2-4 and Cali, Colombia on December 16-18. As host nation to the next Olympic games in London in 2012, as well as the outstanding track cycling nation at the Beijing games, the team is aiming to secure as many qualification points as possible in the season’s early events.
The cream of the nation’s sprinters, including three-time Beijing gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy, with Matt Crampton and Jason Kenny in the men’s team, and Beijing champion Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish in the women’s; World Omnium champion Ed Clancy will be competing in both events.
In addition, the men’s pursuit team will be concentrating on the Melbourne World Cup, while the women’s pursuit team will aim at the competition in Cali.
“We are aiming to gain as many Olympic qualification points as we can as early as we can in the season,” said Great Britain’s Performance Manager Shane Sutton, “but it’s likely that other nations will be taking the same approach which is why we’ve decided to send a full strength squad to contest the first two rounds of the World Cup season. The whole squad has good form at the moment, and the recent European Track Championships has given us an indicator of what is required to be competitive at the World Cups.”
Riders for Melbourne
Male:
Steven Burke
Ed Clancy
Matt Crampton
Sir Chris Hoy
Jason Kenny
Jason Queally
Luke Rowe
Andy Tennant
Female:
Victoria Pendleton
Jess Varnish
Riders for Cali
Male:
Ed Clancy
Matt Crampton
Sir Chris Hoy
Jason Kenny
Female:
Katie Colclough
Wendy Houvenaghel
Laura Trott
Victoria Pendleton
Jess Varnish