Queally returns to sprint squad as he looks to London 2012

GB men's team pursuit squad win gold, European Track Championships 2010

Jason Queally has confirmed that he is to return to the British sprint squad in a bid to make it to the London Olympics next year.

40-year-old Queally had retired from the British squad when he wasn't selected for the Beijing Olympics. He made a foray in to Paralympic tandem piloting, but returned to international competition with surprise move to the team pursuit squad.

"I was asked if I would like to come back into the team sprint squad by senior management to try out for man three in London," Queally told the Guardian. The news had earlier leaked out when a brainstorming session in the British Cycling offices was recorded on a white board but not wiped clean, according to Richard Moore's Sky Sports blog.

There's not much in it, and both are competitive on a world stage, but in an event decided by fractions of a second the difference between a winning sprinter and one in the top ten is crucial.

And it's not as if the British team has failed since winning the Olympic team sprint - in the subsequent world championships they've taken a silver and a bronze medals - but they've always been a few tenths of a second behind the French and have got no where near their worlds best time of 42.950 seconds they set in Beijing.

He will rejoin training with the sprint squad after this year's world championships in Apeldoorn; March 23-27.

Related links

Jason Queally: Rider Profile

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Simon Richardson
Magazine editor

Editor of Cycling Weekly magazine, Simon has been working at the title since 2001. He fell in love with cycling 1989 when watching the Tour de France on Channel 4, started racing in 1995 and in 2000 he spent one season racing in Belgium. During his time at CW (and Cycle Sport magazine) he has written product reviews, fitness features, pro interviews, race coverage and news. He has covered the Tour de France more times than he can remember along with two Olympic Games and many other international and UK domestic races. He became the 130-year-old magazine's 13th editor in 2015.