Wendy Houvenaghel, Sarah Storey and Laura Trott will be Great Britain's only representatives at the second round of the UCI Track World Cup in Cali, Colombia, over December 1-3.
The 2011-12 Track World Cup and following Track World Championships offer the final chance for many riders and national teams to hone their form in top-level competition and collect qualification points ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games in London in July and August.
The GB endurance trio of Houvenaghel, Storey and Trott will combine forces in the women's team pursuit with Trott also taking part in the women's omnium event. No British male competitors or sprint riders will make the journey to South America.
Houvenaghel and Trott were part of the World Championship-winning trio along with Dani King that struck gold in Apeldoorn in March. Multi-Para Cycling world and Olympic champion Storey was part of GB's winning trio with Houvenaghel and Joanna Rowsell at the Manchester round of the 2010-11 Track World Cup. Trott teamed up with Rowsell and King to take the Euopean team pursuit title in October.
Trott has spent little time training on the boards since winning the European championships omnium and team pursuit. She will ride as third woman off in the team pursuit in Cali as opposed to her normal lead position, but has said that she will not back off in any event despite the lack of solid training time.
"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," Trott told British Cycling during a training session at the London Olympic velodrome this week. "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."
The Cali round of the UCI 2011-12 Track World Cup is the second of four rounds. The remaining two take place in Beijing, China, on January 13-15 before the final round in the London Olympic velodrome over February 17-19. The 2012 Track World Championships take place in Melbourne, Australia, over April 4-8.
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Related links
European Track Championships 2011: GB's hat-trick of gold
Track World Championships 2011: Pursuiters grab gold
Manchester Track World Cup: Team pursuiters grab gold
Wendy Houvenaghel: Rider Profile
Sarah Storey: Rider Profile
Laura Trott: Rider Profile
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Nigel Wynn worked as associate editor on CyclingWeekly.com, he worked almost single-handedly on the Cycling Weekly website in its early days. His passion for cycling, his writing and his creativity, as well as his hard work and dedication, were the original driving force behind the website’s success. Without him, CyclingWeekly.com would certainly not exist on the size and scale that it enjoys today. Nigel sadly passed away, following a brave battle with a cancer-related illness, in 2018. He was a highly valued colleague, and more importantly, an exceptional person to work with - his presence is sorely missed.
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