Team Great Britain have announced a three-rider squad for the second Track World Cup event of the season in Cali.Paralympic champion Sarah Storey will step up her bid for an Olympic place as part of a three-woman team pursuit squad next month.
British Cycling have announced a stripped back squad for the event, which takes place from December 1-3, with Storey to ride alongside World Champions Wendy Houvenaghel and Laura Trott.
Sky Sports Olympic blogger Storey is vying with Houvenaghel, Trott, Joanna Rowsell and Dani King for a place in the Olympic team in the three-kilometre event.
Stiff test
Reigning European omnium champion and fellow blogger Trott feels the long-haul trip will provide valuable experience and a potential clash with rivals New Zealand.
She said: "I was going out there for the omnium but we've got Wendy and Sarah on the plane too so we're going to have a good go at the team pursuit.
"I think the Kiwi's are going to hit it pretty hard to be honest. I've just seen that they've done a three minutes 19 seconds (0.2 seconds off the world record) out at the Oceana Games.
"I think they will probably be our biggest rivals at the Olympics. But then we can't control what other people do anyway so we'll just give it our best."
Team Pursuit World Champion Laura Trott will forgo her usual leadout position in an experiment to take place at round two of the UCI Track World Cup.
Speaking from London – where the British women’s Team Pursuit squad are training on the Olympic velodrome – Trott confirmed riding in Columbia was not part of her original season plan and described her race form as an unknown.
“After winning the European Championships I was not planning to race again before the London World Cup in February 2012, however that has now changed. As such, I’ve not been training specifically for Cali and don’t know what kind of form I have. I won’t be backing off for this race either, the idea is to train through, as the original plan and continue training after the races.”
Lining up alongside Wendy Houvenaghel and Sarah Storey, the trio will race together for the first time on November 30. But despite a different order, Trott expects her role to be similar, with an easier start and lap-and-a-half turns.
Trott will also ride the Omnium in Cali, which she expects to be a different challenge to the European Championships.
“I don’t think I can expect personal bests in the timed events and in the bunch races I will have to race more tactically. I’ll take each event at a time and hope to learn as I go, with some room to improve on my points race especially.”
Paralympic world champion Sarah Storey
Salford’s Sarah Storey has been chosen to represent Great Britain in the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Colombia next month.
She will join world champions Wendy Houvenaghel and Laura Trott for the second round in Cali from December 1-3.
Great Britain’s World Cup campaign began earlier this month in Kazakhstan in which Sir Chris Hoy won gold in the sprint and silver in the keirin whilst Dani King won silver in the omnium.
Paralympic champion Storey is vying with Houvenaghel, Trott, Joanna Rowsell and Dani King for a place in the Olympic team in the three-kilometre event at London 2012.
Sarah has been giving some tips on how to cycle yourself fit on the Channel 4 Paralympic Games website.
Click here to see what she has to say.
Sir Chris Hoy has revealed his excitement at competing in next year’s UCI London Track World Cup as the Scotsman enters a solid block of training until the Olympic test event on 17-19 February 2012.
Hoy will be training in Australia until Christmas and then back in Manchester with the squad until the final World Cup of the series
With no sprinters travelling to Cali, Columbia for the next event in the World Cup series, London’s 6,000-seater venue in the Olympic Park will be Hoy’s next competitive outing in front of a sold out crowd, with British Cycling members having benefitted from priority access to tickets for the spectacle.
Speaking to his official website, www.chrishoy.com, Hoy said: "I'm entering another solid block of training now - back to 'foundation building' including track, road and gym - and my next competition will be the London World Cup in February.
“I'll be training in Australia until Christmas and then back in Manchester with the squad until the final World Cup of the series at the new velodrome in London. I'm really looking forward to that event and being able to compete in the Olympic venue. After that, I'll be back training in Manchester in preparation for the World Championships which take place at the beginning of April in Melbourne, Australia."
Hoy added that he was still on the road to recovery after a chest infection forced him out of theEuropean Championships in Apeldoorn, Holland, but has taken confidence from a flurry of wins in the British National Championships and in Kazakhstan at the opening World Cup meeting.
"I'm still having lingering problems with my chest; and I didn't feel great after the keirin last weekend in Astana, but hopefully being out in the warm air in Australia will help to clear it up."
"Overall I'm really pleased with how the last couple of months have gone in terms of performance, although it was obviously hindered a bit by getting ill just before the Europeans. I really enjoyed the Nationals and winning three golds was a great start to the season and a real boost.
“I had flu before the Europeans and then picked up a chest infection so I had to come home early which was really frustrating and disappointing, but the first round of the World Cup series in Astana gave me the opportunity to bounce back and I was delighted to win the sprint and to come away with a silver in the keirin. In terms of Olympic qualification points the team's looking comfortable and we're in a good place leading into the next phase of competition, starting with the London World Cup in February."
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