Mark Cavendish picked to ride omnium at Track World Championships

Mark Cavendish, winner of the Tour of Qatar last week, will return to the track in March after being selected to ride the omnium at the UCI Track World Championships (March 2-6) in London.

Cavendish is also likely to team up with Sir Bradley Wiggins in the Madison event, reuniting eight years after winning the World title together in 2008.

Ed Clancy returns to the track after missing the World Cup season with a back injury, while fellow Olympic champions Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell Shand, Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Jason Kenny and Phil Hindes return to the Lee Valley Velodrome.

British Cycling technical director Shane Sutton said the squad should form the basis of the team selected to travel to Rio for the Olympic Games in August.

“We’ve selected the strongest squad available to us for these worlds - we’re in good shape and the team we’ve selected is close to the Olympic model," he said.

“It’s great to see Ed Clancy and Katie Archibald included on the squad and that’s testament to the hard work of the Performance Support Team who have ably led the rehabilitation of these riders following their respective injuries.

“Winning is always a key objective for any sports team and we’re sticking to our long-term goal which is success at the Olympic Games in Rio so we’ll be making performance decisions based on this strategy.

“That said, there’s been a marked increase in momentum within the squad recently and we’ve been seeing some promising numbers in training, so I’m expecting to see some strong performances across the board and spectators will be guaranteed to see some world-class competition.”

Great Britain squad for the UCI Track World Championships

Men: Steven Burke, Mark Cavendish, Ed Clancy, Matt Crampton, Jon Dibben, Owain Doull, Phillip Hindes, Jason Kenny, Chris Latham, Callum Skinner, Andy Tennant, Sir Bradley Wiggins.

Women: Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker, Ciara Horne, Becky James, Katy Marchant, Emily Nelson, Joanna Rowsell Shand, Laura Trott, Jess Varnish.