Laura Trott: “I’ll ride third wheel in Cali World Cup”

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.”