Why there's no Brit in the individual pursuit

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As Cycling Weekly revealed yesterday, British Cycling will not field a man in the individual pursuit at the track world championships this week.

Today we spoke to men?s endurance coach Matt Parker who explained how they came to that decision in a little more detail.

The initial plan had been for both Ed Clancy and Steven Burke to ride the individual and team pursuits, but bad luck put paid to that. Clancy broke a small bone in his foot three weeks ago after stubbing his toe, and more recently, Burke was hit with a bout of food poisoning.

Although the team pursuit quartet is now back up to speed, BC?s management were worried about putting either of the two through the individual pursuit, that takes place on the Thursday, and then the team pursuit on the Friday.

Although both Clancy and Burke could have managed the schedule, BC?s coaching staff decided not to risk it now the pair are the lynchpins of the team pursuit.

Jonny Bellis and Peter Kennaugh are the other two riders in the team pursuit quartet and both are making their debuts at this. Should the new-look team struggle at all during the ride, it will be down to Burke and Clancy to rescue the ride, and for that they need to be at 100 percent.

America?s Taylor Phinney will start the individual pursuit as favourite after his stunning ride at the Copenhagen world cup, clocking 4.15 minutes, just outside Bradley Wiggins personal best.

Denmark and New Zealand are joint favourites for the team pursuit.

2009 UCI TRACK CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

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