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Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas has sent a warning to Australia’s team pursuit squad in a challenge that will come to a head at Melbourne’s world championships next April.

 

On the back of a decision to skip the Spring Classics for the world championships and Tour de France in favour of chasing his Olympic ambitions on the track, Thomas has conceded that Australia has the edge but has identified the world championships as the key opportunity to prove the Brits can’t be written off just yet.

 

Meanwhile, New Zealand have also put their hat in the ring with a fourth fastest time in history in the team pursuit overnight joining a host of results from the current Oceania Championships that put the Kiwi’s amongst the major challengers for rainbow jerseys in Melbourne.

 

On the road Thomas was a key lead out man for Mark Cavendish at the 2011 road world championships and on the track he joined teammates Bradley Wiggins, Ed Clancy and Paul Manning to win gold in the teams pursuit at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in world record time, but he admits any victory in 2012 will be hard fought.

 

“The Track Worlds in Melbourne is a big hit. I think we have to go there and do well,” Thomas told VeloUK.

 

“If I was riding the individual pursuit and only that, then yes, perhaps I could miss the Track Worlds and do the Classics but for the team pursuit, it’s important we have our best team there. To go down there and race the Aussies and showing them what we can do. For sure it will be a hell of a lot harder than the gold we won in Beijing.”

 

“To be honest I think the Australians are probably ahead of us in the team pursuit now," Thomas also conceded to Eurosport.

 

“They are the current world champions and are posting some impressive times.

 

“However, we haven’t had our best side out for a while so when we do, we know we have to go out, work hard and do whatever we have to do to get in front of them again.”

 

Hoy’s key Olympic preparation underway in Australia

 

A key summer training period in Australia and return to Melbourne for the world championships in April are top priorities for four-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy in his preparation for the London Olympics next year.

 

Returning to winning form at the first UCI Track World Cup in Kazakhstan earlier this month, the ten-time world champion is currently in Perth for a training block before returning to Manchester with the British squad.

 

The 35-year-old will then join the world’s best riders in what will be their only chance to race on the Olympic velodrome at the London leg of the world cup in February.  With riders lining up to compete, the final world cup event will provide the best indication of challengers for the world championships and Olympic Games.

 

Whilst still recovering from illness, Hoy’s campaign is back on track.

 

"I'm still having lingering problems with my chest; and I didn't feel great after the keirin last weekend in Astana, but hopefully being out in the warm air in Australia will help to clear it up," Hoy wrote on his website.

 

"Overall I'm really pleased with how the last couple of months have gone in terms of performance, although it was obviously hindered a bit by getting ill just before the Europeans. I really enjoyed the Nationals and winning three golds was a great start to the season and a real boost.

 

“I had flu before the Europeans and then picked up a chest infection so I had to come home early which was really frustrating and disappointing, but the first round of the World Cup series in Astana gave me the opportunity to bounce back and I was delighted to win the sprint and to come away with a silver in the keirin.

 

In terms of Olympic qualification points the team's looking comfortable and we're in a good place leading into the next phase of competition, starting with the London World Cup in February."

 

Kiwi’s flying at Oceania Championships

 

New Zealand quartet of Marc Ryan, Sam Bewley, Aaron Gate and Jesse Sergent took two seconds off the national record to post the fourth fastest time in history at the Oceania Championships in Invercargill.

Their time of 3.55.295 makes them the second fastest nation, with Great Britain the only nation to go faster.  It tops Australia’s fastest time by just over one tenth of a second. 

 

Just as strong in the women’s event, Alison Shanks, Lauren Ellis and Jaime Nielsen posted the second fastest time in history (3:19.759) to smash the national record they set earlier that day by four seconds.

 

Alison Shanks (individual pursuit) and women’s sprint pair Natasha Hansen and Katie Schofield also set New Zealand records in some fast racing at Invercargill.

 

The championships wrap up today with the men’s and women’s sprint, omnium and men’s madison.

The next UCI Track World Cup is December 1-3 in Cali, Columbia.  The series then moves to China in January and London in February before the track season culminates at the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships.

 

The UCI Track Cycling World Championships stand at the pinnacle of world track cycling, attracting up to 350 of the world’s best riders from more than 40 countries.  The final qualifying event in the lead up to the London Olympic Games, the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships will be held at Hisense Arena in Melbourne from Wednesday 4 to Sunday 8 April.

 

For more information on the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, visitwww.2012trackworlds.com.au

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GENEVA – Alberto Contador can expect to find out in January if he will keep his 2010 Tour de France victory or be stripped of the title for doping.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Monday that a verdict is expected in early 2012 after a four-day hearing into the Spanish rider's case next week.

Contador is due to appear at the highest court in world sports in Lausanne, Switzerland, starting next Monday to present his defense that contaminated beef caused his positive test for clenbuterol.

CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said the three-man appeal panel likely will need "six to eight weeks" to publish its ruling.

"It is a normal period of time for a case of this complexity," Reeb told The Associated Press by telephone.

Contador tested positive for clenbuterol in the final days of his third Tour victory.

The International Cycling Union and World Anti-Doping Agency appealed to CAS after the Spanish cycling federation cleared Contador of blame in February.

The World Anti-Doping Code classes clenbuterol, an anabolic agent which can help burn fat and build muscle. as a zero-tolerance substance.

However, athletes can be exonerated if they prove how they consumed it and were not at fault. Contador claims he ate Spanish beef contaminated by the drug.

If found guilty, Contador faces a ban of up to two years and losing his 2010 Tour title and 2011 Giro d'Italia victory.

CAS procedural rules allow its arbitration panels to issue fast-track decisions with detailed reasons to follow later, if all parties agree.

"There is no such request. There is no particular need for speed," Reeb said.

Contador's case has twice been delayed after lawyers for both sides asked the court for more time to prepare. Previously scheduled three-day hearings in June and August were postponed.

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Sir Chris Hoy won his second medal of the track cycling World Cup in Kazakhstan today with gold in the sprint.

The four-times Olympic champion added victory in the sprint to the silver he won in the keirin. And there was another medal for the British team as Dani King claimed silver in the women's omnium.

It meant a total of three medals in a relatively low-key weekend for the British teams at the first of the four-event series.

Hoy, who pulled out of last month's European Championships with a chest infection, appears to have recovered well.

He recorded a sub-10 seconds ride in qualifying for the sprint and was only really troubled in his semi-final against Germany's Robert Forstemann when he needed to come from behind in a best-of-three series to secure a place in the final.

Russia's Denis Dmitriev was beaten in straight races in the gold-medal race.

 

 

1. You’ve missed this round of the World Cup for the past couple of years. Why is it important that you make the trip this year?

 

“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. This means I'll be attending the World Cups in Melbourne, Cali and Manchester plus the World Championships in Holland. 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.”

 

2. Who do you see as your main threat in Melbourne and in the lead up to London 2012?

 

“I tend not to worry too much about my rivals as it's a pointless exercise and just ends up as a waste of energy. I try to focus on the things that are within my control, like making sure I train as hard as I can in every single session, staying injury free and peaking at the right time of the season. 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.  I know I'll have to be firing on all cylinders to make it onto the top step of the podium.”

 

3. Has your early exit in the Sprint at the European Championships increased the importance of the Melbourne Track World Cup in your Olympic qualification campaign? If so, can you please state why?

 

“Not really, no. Our Olympic qualification is centred around the Team Sprint, so individual performances in relation to qualifying GB places for London aren't hugely important in that respect. Obviously from a personal perspective I would have liked to have been successful in the sprint at the European Championships, but the reason for that was simply an error of judgement rather than a lack of form. I'm riding the sprint in Cali so look forward to getting my teeth into that event out there, but before then I've got the keirin and team sprint in Melbourne to focus on.”

 

4. With only one spot available per nation for the sprint and keirin events at London 2012, do you feel more pressure from Jason Kenny as opposed to riders from other nations?

 

“Again, I try not to let other riders' performances affect me negatively or make me feel pressurised, as there's nothing I can do about them. It's not as if there's only Jason Kenny performing well either; we have Matt Crampton, Dave Daniell, Ross Edgar and others too, so there is always a fight to earn your place on the team. I like it though, as it tends to create a really competitive training environment which I believe helps push us all on. It's always been that way; even years ago when I rode the kilo I had Jason Queally, Craig MacLean and Jamie Staff as team mates and rivals. At the end of the day you want your team mates to be fast as you'll be lining up alongside them in the team sprint.”

 

5. Psychologically, how important are victories at the Track World Cup over your rivals?

 

“A win is always good for the confidence, and I'm a big believer that morale is a huge factor in athletic performance. However, victories mid-season can sometimes be misleading because different riders approach their seasons in different ways. For example some riders may peak for a specific World Cup, whilst others may be deliberately training through a race, ie they won't be backing off from training prior to the event to freshen up. Sometimes you can beat a rival at a World Cup but by March they could be a much tougher prospect. So I never read too much into my rivals performances at World Cups. My approach is to use the World Cups as tests of form and I always go into them with realistic expectations based on how my training has been going at that time.”

 

6. Do you see this as the Commonwealth Games clash with the Australians that never happened?

 

“Not really, I think the Commonwealth Games are a unique one-off event which only happen once every four years, and you can't really replicate them. I was really disappointed not to be in Delhi to represent Scotland but I've accepted that and put it to bed. The Aussie team out there looked hugely impressive as always and are certainly going well at the moment. I expect them to be a formidable force in Melbourne and beyond, but I'm looking forward to the challenge and I'm sure the rest of the British team are too.”

 

 

2010 Track World Cup – Melbourne
Date:	Thursday, 2 December – Saturday, 4 December
Evening Session times:	Day One – Thursday, 2 December (7:00pm – 10:00pm) Day Two – Friday, 3 December (7:00pm – 10:00pm) Day Three – Saturday 4 December (7:00pm – 10:40pm) (note some of the finals rounds for the Omnium and most qualifying rounds will be raced in the day sessions)
Who:	World’s best track cyclists More than 300 cyclists from 41 national teams and 14 trade teams
Tickets:	Tickets start at $9.50 through to $189 for the premium all sessions package. Available from Ticketek on 132 849 or visit www.ticketek.com.au
Website:	www.trackworldcup.com.au