Strongest ever British track squad named for Manchester World Cup

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British Cycling today announced its 27 rider team to compete at the track world cup in Manchester next month. With a mix of Olympic champions and emerging young talent it looks like the strongest British team ever assembled.

The three-day event starting on February 18 will see the return of Olympic team pursuit champions Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas. The last time they rode a team pursuit together they set the world record and won Olympic gold in Beijing. Team pursuit training sessions this Monday will be the first for Wiggins since Beijing.

Both the men's and women's endurance line-ups have an embarrassment of riches as Olympic champion Rebecca Romero also makes her return to track racing after a year experimenting with time trialling on the road.

Both a GB and 100% ME team will compete in the women's team pursuit, but despite ten male team pursuiters being named, only one GB quartet will ride in the men's event. Competition for the final five places will be fierce. "[Selection] will be done off of performance trials on the track," explained men's endurance coach Dan Hunt. "Bradley and G (Geraint Thomas) need to demonstrate their capabilities, but they've got good history."

"We film everything, and break everything down in to half lap splits and delivery speeds and pick a team off of that. Most of the time we get it [right]. Sometimes there's bit of feel that goes in to it, but on the whole it's done objectively."

The names on the list will undoubtedly make for a fast race, even if their main adversaries the Australians aren't fielding a team. "I'm not going to say we're going to beat the world record because that was done at the Olympics with Olympic preparation in Olympic kit. To go that fast is incredibly difficult," Hunt said.

Men's sprint

Women's sprint

Men's endurance



Women's endurance

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Simon Richardson
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.