A 35-strong Great Britain Cycling Team squad of riders will head to Italy to race in the2016 UEC track Juniors and U23 European Championships next week.
This is the largest Great Britain Cycling Team squad to ever compete at the European championships and the event will provide vital international competition experience for Junior Academy and Senior Academy athletes on the Rider Route.
The team
Elite points race world champion, Jon Dibben, will lead a formidable under-23 men’s endurance squad of riders, many of whom are already having success on the elite racing circuit.
Chris Latham, Matt Gibson and Ollie Wood will be hoping to defend the under-23 European team pursuit title they won in Athens in 2015.
Ryan Owens will be competing in the under-23 sprint events before joining the Olympic squad, where he will be travelling to Rio as the reserve.
Eleanor Dickinson and Rebecca Raybould narrowly missed out on a team pursuit medal final in the 2015 championships and will be keen to put in a strong performance, as the junior team continues to go from strength to strength.
Hamish Turnbull joins the junior men’s sprint team in 2016, after becoming the under-16 national champion in the sprint in 2015.
Sophie Capewell, who was the only female junior sprinter in 2015 and placed fourth in the sprint event, will this year be joined by Georgia Hilleard and Lauren Bate-Lowe.
The venue
The championships are taking place in the Montichiari Velodrome on thetrack built in 2009 for the following year’s UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championship.
Montichiari is also the Great Britain Cycling Train’s European training basefor the men’s endurance academy squad, so the British team will be heading into the championships on a track they know well.
The schedule
Tuesday 12 July
8.30am – 6.50pm UK time
Medals decided: Junior women’s team sprint, junior men’s team sprint, under-23 women’s individual pursuit, under-23 men’s individual pursuit, junior women’s team pursuit, junior men’s team pursuit, junior women’s scratch race, junior men’s scratch race.
Wednesday 13 July
8.30am – 8.55pm UK time
Medals decided: Under-23 women’s team pursuit, under-23 men’s team pursuit, under-23 women’s team sprint, under-23 men’s team sprint, junior men’s 1km time trial, junior women’s individual pursuit, junior men’s individual pursuit.
The National Youth and Junior Track Championships will be running from Monday 8 August to Friday 12 August in Newport Velodrome, displaying the best young British talent on offer! For day-by-day updates, check out the below.
