Shanks to Lead New Zealanders in World Track Cycling opener

World champion Alison Shanks leads the New Zealand team into competition on the opening day of the UCI World Track Cycling Championships in Copenhagen tomorrow.

Shanks will contest the 3000m individual pursuit where she will come up against a strong line-up led by Great Britain’s Wendy Houvenaghel, who won the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics.

The New Zealander edged out the British rider to take the world championship gold medal in Poland last year when Shanks went under the 3m30s barrier for the first time.

Houvenaghel showed she means business when she won the World Cup final over Shanks in Melbourne late last year, but the kiwi is pleased with her preparations leading up to the world championships.

“I’ve laid down a really good base, with more strength and endurance work than ever before. The speed phase has gone really well and I am looking forward to the competition,” Shanks said.

While Shanks will use all her experience, it is going to be a different story for the rest of the BikeNZ team making their debuts at this level tomorrow.

The first kiwi on the track will be Hamilton rider Jaime Nielsen also in the women’s individual pursuit. It will be a major jump for the former world under-23 champion rower who took up the sport less than two years ago.

She will be the first rider on the track the championships, ironically the identical position that Shanks faced in her first world championships.

Christchurch rider Adam Stewart has won the final spot in the burgeoning men’s team sprint to join with triple world junior champion Sam Webster and national sprint and kilo champion Eddie Dawkins.

Stewart won the start over Aucklander Ethan Mitchell, who was part of the world junior champion team sprint combination last year.

“There was very little between the two of them. With all of our trials and testing the pair of them were so similar but in this instance Stewart has got the nod with his experience and he provides a really good platform as the vital lead-off rider,” national coach Tim Carswell said.

Mitchell, 19, will contest the sprint and kilo time trial later in the meet.

Southland 20-year-old Tom Scully will have his first outing in a senior world championship when he contests the points race.

Scully has enjoyed a remarkable rise, winning five medals in World Cup competition over the last four months, but tomorrow will be a significant first-up test at the highest level for the talented young Kiwi.

Competition gets underway at 3am (NZ time) with the finals from 7pm.