GB sends full-strength men's team to Melbourne World Cup

Great Britain will field a full-strength men's team for the opening round of the 2010-2011 UCI Track World Cup in Melbourne, Australia, over December 2-4.

Sir Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Matt Crampton will represent Britain in the sprint disciplines, with Jason Queally, Andy Tennant, Steven Burke, Ed Clancy and Luke Rowe down for the endurance events.

Sir Chris will ride in the keirin and team sprint events where he will undoubtedly be looking for a stronger performance than the recent European track championships in Poland that saw the GB team sprinters miss out on the gold-silver final and Hoy sensationally eliminated from the individual sprint event by Ireland's Felix English.

"We're looking to try and score as many points as possible this season to secure qualification for London 2012 as early as we can," said Hoy.

"The simplest way for us to qualify GB a place in all three sprint events is through the team sprint, as each country automatically gets a sprint and keirin place when they qualify a team sprint place."

"I expect to have good form at the Melbourne World Cup, having ridden a 9.99s for 200m recently, but anything can happen in the races - as I found out in Poland! - and there will no doubt be a really strong field from the Australians and the rest of the world." 

Britain's team pursuit quartet will come up against the strong Australian squad for the first time this season - Cameron Meyer, Jack Bobridge, Michael Hepburn and Leigh Howard.

Former sprinter Queally made his top-level debut in the team pursuit at the Euro championships and helped the team secure the gold medal, beating Russia in the final. Australia will pose a much harder obstacle in the fight for gold.

The UCI Track World Cup in Melbourne starts on Thursday, December 2 and concludes on Saturday, December 4.

The squad list for Team GB - including the women's selection - is expected to be officially confirmed in the coming week.

Related links

European track championships 2010: Cycling Weekly's coverage index

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