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UCI Track Cycling World Cup Preview

Story posted October 28; by Larry Hickmott
Essential Info: Brits -- Who is Riding What | : Track Cycling World Cup Home Page | Rider Start Sheet

Awang, SIlver medallist at the 2009 World Championships pulls a wheelie on Ross Edgar to knock him out of the competition for the medals.

This Friday, in front of a packed crowd at the Manchester Velodrome, many World Champions and those wanting to take those crowns from them at the 2010 World Championships, will be competing to earn the right to compete in Copenhagen, the host city for the next Track Cycling World Championships.

The Track Cycling World Cups form part of a qualifying system for countries who wish to enter riders for the Track Cycling World Championships and no country can take these World Cups lightly. Through out the year, national teams plan a strategy to hit specific World Cups hard to gain the most qualifying points and ensure their place at the Worlds.

There are four World Cups starting with Manchester followed by Melbourne (Australia), Cali (Columbia) and finally Beijing (China). The key for nations is to get their best team at the World Championships in the best possible form and that means not spending the winter travelling the world just trying to qualify. Each country is required to compete in all the Worlds Cups but many will choose to hit one or more with a full strength team and then only send smaller squads to the others.

At Manchester 2008, Victoria Pendleton was the winner of three Golds and after her awesome rides last week at the nationals, the World and Olympic champion is favourite to repeat that performance although the competition this time round is very tough indeed so expect some fantastic racing between the very best in the World.

The logistics are mind boggling. One fact that came to light this week is that countries will have to enter their riders for the Melbourne World Cup before they have even competed at Manchester. The point being that a country having qualified a rider for the Worlds at Manchester may not want the expense of sending them to Melbourne ‘for the experience’.

So, for home nations like Great Britain, Australia, China and Columbia, having a ‘local’ World Cup is ideal. There is no, or little, travelling and the disruption to training is kept to a minimum. For British riders, the Manchester Track Cycling World Cup will be the most important event of the Winter and anyone thinking that it’s just another race for such a successful team will be wide of the mark. A visit to the training session shows just how seriously the team are taking this and they are quite right to do so because the field for this Manchester Track Cycling World Cup is very strong indeed.

The names of many a World Champion are on the start sheet and also for the first time, a trade team, Cofidis, has riders from  more than one nation. National teams will often use a trade team to give them the opportunity to field a bigger than normal team at a World Cup but perhaps multi-national trade teams will become common place just as it is on the road.

2009 World Track Cycling Championships Photo Album

The Great Britain Challenge
An example of trade and national teams working as one will be in evidence in Manchester as riders in the Great Britain colours race the same events as the riders in the Sky +HD skinsuits. The coaches and managers have worked out the combinations carefully to give specific riders the opportunity to race the events where success is expected or at least in the example of the young riders, valuable experience is given.

* Click here to learn more about the British riders competing  | Who is Riding What Event

Sprint
It is in the Sprint events where GB and Sky +HD will race side-by-side when the likes of Olympic champions Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton will race against their British teammates in Jason Kenny and Becky James. A look at the start sheet and there are many notable French riders not on the list. This could be for many reasons and perhaps it’s because they, the French, feel that maximum success in gathering qualifying points will come at another World Cup or perhaps the timing is not right for them.

What ever the reason, the likes of Bauge, Sireau, and Bourgain are missing but anyone thinking the Brits will have it easy think again! The master of the wheelie,  Azizulhasni Awang riding for trade team Bike Technologies (BT) is on the start sheet and after a Silver medal (Sprint) at the Worlds last year, is sure to be an entertaining threat to the British sprinters. Aussie Shane Perkins, fourth at the Worlds, is also entered and so a tough and exciting Men’s competition is assured. Anyone who was at Manchester 2008 will remember Perkins tangling with Jason Kenny and the latter crossing the finish line on his back. First of course!

The Brits will have two teams in the Team Sprint  and victory by one of them is expected ...

I do expect the Brits, after that sensational ‘43’ in the Team Sprint at the Nationals to win the Team Sprint but the Sprint and Keirin are wide open and the Olympic champion in all three, Chris Hoy, will no doubt be looking to get his World Cup campaign off to a winning start whilst up and coming riders like Jason Kenny and Matt Crampton look to continue there progression in the discipline.

If the Men’s Sprint is sure to be exciting, then the Women’s competition is going to be even more so with all the top riders from the Track Worlds in 2009 on the start sheet. Top of the list is Olympic and World Champion Victoria Pendleton who was sensational in the nationals last week going under 11 seconds again for the flying 200 and close to her personal best. Victoria though has many a strong challenger. As well as the Aussie Anna Meares who was her closest challenger at the Olympics in Beijing, all the main  challengers from the Worlds are also lining up to try and beat Victoria.

Top Dutch female sprinter Willy Kanis has entered, Simona Krupeckaite of Lithuania,  Olga Panarina of Belarus and Shuang Guo of China. It is a mouth watering line up and probably the best ever for the female Sprint events at a World Cup. It really is a World Championship or Olympic Games quality field. And then we have the prospect of seeing how two brilliant young British sprinters fare in Jess Varnish and Becky James.

It doesn't happen very often but three Brits on the same podium at a World Cup -- at Manchester 2008 that indeed happened thanks to Lucy Martin, Lizzie Armitstead and Katie Colclough.

The Sprint events will not however be the only events to get the crowd on their feet because the endurance ones are also going to be edge of the seat action packed races. Everyone will have their favourites they are looking forward too but one of those expected to see the roof raised once or twice is the Men’s Individual Pursuit.

Geraint Thomas, the World Record holder in the Team Pursuit and Olympic champion for the same event will be a sensation to watch in the Individual event and whilst the field up against him does lack the likes of Phinney and Bobridge (1-2 at the Track Worlds) it does boast Cornu, Bartko, Escobar and others.

Then there is Olympic Bronze medallist in the Points (Beijing) Chris Newton who was in great form at the Track Nationals and who is expected to be racing both the Scratch and Points races, the latter his speciality.

That event sadly is one rumoured to be axed from the Olympics but at the World Cup, Newton is sure to be the favourite on his home boards and in front of his home crowd.  Sadly, because the Madison is being held the night before the Team Pursuit in a change of normal scheduling, GB is not expected to be fielding riders in the Madison.

Last time out at Manchester, it was Ed Clancy who won the Pursuit. This time, favourite to do the same is Welsh star Geraint Thomas.

Great Britain will as they normally do, concentrate their efforts on the Olympic event and that means the Team Pursuit. It will take centre stage in this World Cup and as endurance events go, it is a blue ribbon event, especially for the Brits. Racing it will see two of the Olympic Gold medal winning team taking part, Ed Clancy and Geraint Thomas with the other two being from a selection of Steven Burke, Andy Tennant and Ben Swift.

In the Women’s Endurance events, the World Cup will see three British riders donning skinsuits with the rainbow stripes on them as Lizzie  Armitstead, Wendy  Houvenaghel and Joanna Rowsell line up in the Women’s Team Pursuit, an event that is expected to be added to the Olympic Games programme and as such, is now much more of an important target to national teams.

In the Individual Pursuit for Women, the 2009 World Champion is not on the start sheet but the Olympic and World Championship Silver medallist, Wendy Houvenaghel, a World Cup champion twice over, is racing and will be the over whelming favourite.

In the bunch races for Women, Lizzie Armitstead is expected to lead Britain’s challenge as the triple Gold medal winner from the last Manchester World Cup looks to repeat that performance. She will face however a major challenge with many of the Worlds top women entered for Manchester including a very strong team from Holland and Australia.

Stefan Nimke, World Kilometre champion again in 2009

Overall, the three days are packed tight with top class racing which is expected to be the best World Cup yet. A look through the starting list and there are many names, legends even, who are competing. Stefan Nimke who won the Kilometre at the Track Worlds in 2009 is one. After it was dropped from the Olympics, the Kilo started to become a development race but it seems that the tide is changing and the stars will return to race the non-Olympic events because being a World Champion is a big deal, especially in cycling and they don’t get much bigger than Nimke!

There are plenty of other international stars to thrill the crowd. Some of those I’ve picked out include Olympic Madison champion Walter Perez, Belgian six day star Iljo Keisse, former Keirin and Kilometre champion Teun Mulder, World Madison Champion Michael Morkov, Michael Faerk Christensen (Team Pursuit World Champion), former Olympic champion and World Champion Robert Bartko, attacking endurance rider Kam-Po Wong, former World Champion Peter Schep from Holland and six day star Danny Stam. There is also a strong Irish team including David McCann and David O'loughlin.

The women’s entry, whilst not as strong in numbers does have many of the Worlds best and that includes no less than three World Champions in the Australian line up, Kaarle McCulloch, Anna Meares and Josephine Tomic. Other experienced campaigners include Elisa Frisoni and Virginie Cueff whilst a rider who has made a name on the road this year, Kirsten Wild will be a strong challenger to the likes of Lizzie Armitstead and Shelley Olds of the USA.

With plenty of rainbow jerseys on show and certainly the best British riders of a generation looking to remind the World of what happened in Beijing, this year’s Manchester World Cup is going to be wall-to-wall action. British Cycling will be there reporting on the event through out the three days and to learn more, click here.

Manchester 2008 and in the final, Shane Perkins and Jason Kenny have a coming together. Just one example of the action packed three days of racing last time the World Cup visited the Manchester Velodrome.

SCHEDULE
There are three days of action. Highlights include:

Friday 30 October:
Women: Sprint, Scratch Race - Men: Individual Pursuit, Keirin, Points Race, Kilo TT

Saturday 31 October:
Women: Points Race, Individual Pursuit, 500m TT - Men: Sprint, Madison

Sunday 1 November:
Women: Keirin, Team Pursuit - Men: Team Pursuit, Scratch Race, Team Sprint, JKA Keirin

RELATED LINKS

British Cycling Media Centre| Which Events the Brits are Riding |

Essential Info: Track Cycling World Cup Home Page | Rider Start Sheet