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Great Britain’s Victoria Williamson is hoping to continue her impressive progress when she rides with Becky James in the team sprint at this weekend’s Manchester UCI Track Cycling World Cup.
“It’ll be really nice to have home support. I’ll be pretty nervous I think but hopefully it will help me in a good way."
Victoria Williamson
Williamson won bronze with James at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Minsk, Belarus, in February this year.
The 20-year-old set a personal best for her first lap at the Minsk Arena and will aim to better her time again at the Manchester Velodrome when she pairs with double world champion James.
“I’m really happy with my form coming into this world cup,” said Williamson, who won three silver medals at September’s British National Track Championships.
“Earlier on this year in Minsk I did a big personal best and then my flying 200m throughout the year has just got better and better.
“My speed is definitely up there so hopefully I can do another PB in my opening lap.”
In July’s under 23 European track championships, James and Williamson again linked up in Portugal where they won bronze in a time of 34.510 seconds.
London Olympian Jess Varnish then partnered James at the recent European championships in Apeldoorn as the duo won bronze. Williamson finished seventh in the individual sprint and exited in the second round of the keirin.
Williamson will retake the man one role this weekend and wants the pair to reach a new level on their home track with 33.762 seconds the time to beat from Belarus.
“We’re hoping to go better in Manchester,” said Williamson, who will be making her first appearance at a British-based UCI Track Cycling World Cup.
“My lap has improved massively, which for a start is a massive help if we can get off to a quicker lap. The second lap is going to be again better so we’re just improving all the time.
“It’ll be really nice to have home support. I’ll be pretty nervous I think but hopefully it will help me in a good way.
“It does help us with the lack of travelling is massive gain, we’ve not had to get on a five hour flight and not adjust to the time difference and that kind of.
“Obviously being on a home track, which we ride on every day, is really nice as well.”
The British Cycling Olympic Podium Programme athlete credited a summer of training and racing for her current condition.
As well as the under 23 European championships, Williamson has also raced in UCI international meetings in order to qualify for the UCI Track Cycling World Cup.
When asked about the reasons for her present form, Williamson said: “The amount of training we’ve been doing and we’ve been away racing a lot as well which I think is good training in itself.
“Racing can be a lot harder than training just because of the volume of it sometimes with races quite near to each other. The consistency of the training we’ve had recently is just paying off now.”
