BikeNZ Cyclists Chase Success At World Track Championships

New Zealand riders are quietly optimistic of success in the UCI World Track Cycling Championships that begin in Poland on Thursday NZ Time.

Building on from their successes at the Olympics, the recent Beijing World Cup and the national championships in Invercargill, the 12-strong BikeNZ contingent will be looking for continued international improvement in Poland.

BikeNZ High Performance Director Mark Elliott said that the championships represent another stepping stone for the track programme towards next year’s Commonwealth Games and on to the 2012 London Olympics and beyond.

He is delighted with the continued improvement from the young track team since the Beijing Olympics and excited at the raw potential of the women’s programme.

He is also under no misapprehension at the task ahead of them in Poland.
“We are up against fulltime proven professionals at the top of their game,” Elliott said. “Mostly we will be looking for continued improvement in performance as we build towards the 2012 Olympics.

“The group have trained exceptionally well under our coaching team led by Tim Carswell and are well prepared for the championships where they have the opportunity to push for medals this week.”

New Zealand has won two medals on three occasions at the world track championships – achieved at Maebashi in 1990, Berlin in 1999 and a golden performance at Melbourne in 2004 with victories by Sarah Ulmer and Greg Henderson.

Six of this team have won medals at world junior level on the track and the road and are now looking to mark their mark at the senior level.

Leading the way are the Beijing World Cup gold medallists Alison Shanks and Jesse Sergent in the individual pursuit.

Shanks will be joined by newcomers Kaytee Boyd, rowing convert Jaime Nielsen and two-time world junior medallist Lauren Ellis in the fledgling women’s team pursuit.
Sergent will be joined by fellow Beijing Olympic medallists Sam Bewley, Marc Ryan, Wes Gough and Peter Latham in the men’s team pursuit.

Shanks (Dunedin) will be looking to go under the magical 3min 30sec barrier this week, after bringing her 3000m pursuit time down by more than five seconds in the last 12 months. Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Romero will be missing this week but world champion and team pursuit gold medallist Wendy Houvenaghel will be the leading candidate.

The women’s team pursuit, a new event on the world calendar, will be difficult to predict with Boyd and Nielsen competing for the first time with the pair only taking up track cycling three months ago.

Sergent has emerged as a shining prospect clocking the fastest time by a New Zealander of 4:17.961 at the Beijing World Cup, going under the Olympic silver medal winning time of Hayden Roulston.

Gold medallist Bradley Wiggins is not competing but team-mate Ed Clancy is a likely contender along with Olympic medallists Jenning Huizenga (NED) and Alexei Markov (RUS) and world junior champion Taylor Phinney (USA).

The men’s combination will be looking to build on their Olympic bronze medal performance of 3:57.566 in Poland and test the major contenders of Denmark, Australia and the world record-breaking GBR team led by Clancy in a new combination with Geraint Thomas and Wiggins concentrating on the road this year.
Christchurch’s Hayden Godfrey has been in outstanding form as he prepares to defend his Omnium title won in Manchester last year and he could also be a prospect in the scratch race, the event that New Zealand has won two world medals by Henderson in 2004 and 2005.

Ellis, who won individual pursuit medals at the world junior championships in 2006 and 2007, will compete in the women’s scratch and points races while sprinters Eddie Dawkins (Invercargill) and Simon Van Velthooven (Palmerston North) step up in the sprints, keirin and 1km time trial.

They won’t have to face the might of triple Olympic gold medallists Chris Hoy (GBR) who has not recovered sufficiently from a recent crash.

Shanks is the first in action in the women’s individual pursuit on Thursday with Sergent in the men’s individual pursuit, women’s team pursuit, Van Velthooven in the kierin and Godfrey in the scratch race on Friday.

The men’s team pursuit, Dawkins in the time trial, Ellis in the scratch race on Saturday, the women’s omnium and men’s sprint on Sunday with the men’s omnium, sprints and women’s points race on Monday.