Meares and Perkins celebrate world championships launch

Eight-time world champion Anna Meares (SA) and 2011 keirin world champion Shane Perkins (VIC) believe the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Melbourne will provide the perfect launch pad for the Olympic Games in London later next year.

 In less than six months time the world’s greatest cyclists will descend on Melbourne’s Hisense Arena to contest the championships from Wednesday 4 to Sunday 8 April. The track world championships are the final qualification opportunity for the London 2012 Olympic Games, so the 350 competitors from 40 countries could not have more at stake. And when you consider that at the Beijing Olympic Games, seven of the ten gold medals were won by reigning world champions, hot form in April is most likely to transform to Olympic success in July. So the importance of the home world championships isn’t lost on the two leading lights on the Aussie Cyclones outfit. “There’s just nothing like sheer bias from the crowd. It doesn’t matter who is lining up in green and gold, as soon as they hear ‘representing Australia’, they just go nuts,” Meares said. “It’s not too often that an athlete gets to experience two home world championships. I remember just how loud the crowd was in Melbourne in 2004 when I won my first world championships. Now having another eight years under my belt, I’m hoping the local crowd can help me add to my tally of eight world championships. “There certainly is going to be a lot of pressure being a three-time defending champion. You’ve got to be realistic, I think only myself and Victoria Pendleton, in 2007, have been able to do it. In saying that, we’ve been able to do it through the evolution of our sport and the more events have been added to women’s sport and women’s sprinters in particular. I would really love to go out and win all the races, but it’s obviously going to be quite difficult to take on the world and try to pull it off. “The way the racing has been set up with the world championships in my home country, and the Olympic Games in Victoria Pendleton’s home country, we’re going to be inspired by the home crowd. “They (Great Britain) had the world championships before Beijing and obviously had a great Olympics. Hopefully we can have confidence into what I believe is what will be the toughest opposition we’ve ever faced - the British on home soil for an Olympic Games. The crowd over there is one of the best in the world. They are loud, the stadiums are full and that really does lift an athlete. I’m expecting only the best from the British in London.” Meares said she will be looking forward to trying to defend her three world championship titles and the opportunity to ride a race not on the Olympic program, the 500m time trial. “I think it is still possible to defend my titles, and I’m definitely going to ride the 500m time trial. Fortunately it’s been put on the last day of the program, so it doesn’t affect any of the Olympic events I’m really looking forward to that as well. I haven’t ridden a time trial at all since the 2010 world titles. I really would like to win it,” Meares said. “I’d just like to say to the fans, if you’ve never been to the track cycling before it’s an experience on its own. You never realise how close you are to the action, how close to the riders you are and how fast the action is. You can literally feel the wind brush your face as the bunch of riders go past. To see a sport that close, and that intense is unique. “The ticket sales have been going really fast and I encourage all the fans to get onto the tickets urgently.” For Perkins, the chance to race in front of his local Victorian crowd is not to be missed, particularly in the lead-up to what may be the final puzzle piece in his very successful career. “Being the reigning world champion from the Keirin event this year it’s definitely going to be a really big challenge to back up. But having the home support of the crowd, I’m going to be wanting to go out there and give it my best in front of family and friends,” Perkins said. “Obviously the first world championship title is the sweetest one. But you’ve got to keep challenging yourself throughout your career and for me it’s going to be a big challenge and I’m really looking forward to trying to back up my world title on home soil. “Obviously there’s going to be an expectation for me to defend my Keirin title, especially from myself. There is still a lot to improve on, and I’m looking forward to the challenge the pressure to try and emulate what I’ve done this year.  “A lot of my family and friends are getting on board and have already picked up their tickets. Between Anna, myself and the rest of the team, we’re going to have a fair cheer squad there. The Melbourne crowd really gets into it, it’s pretty amazing and the celebrations afterwards are a lot sweeter. It’s not just us out there - the home crowd will be riding with us.” Meares and Perkins will be joined by a hugely talented cyclones line-up in Melbourne, looking to repeat their record breaking medal haul of this year’s world championships in Apeldoorn.  The Australians finished with eight of a possible nineteen gold medals, including six of the ten Olympic events contested.  Minister for Sport and Recreation, Hugh Delahunty encouraged sports fans to promptly secure their seat for the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships. “From the 4th to the 8th of April next year, Melbourne will welcome the world’s best track cyclists to Hisense Arena - more than 350 of the world’s best cyclists from over 40 countries will converge on Melbourne to compete against the best of the best,” Mr Delahunty said. “It will be the final qualifying event in the lead-up to the 2012 London Olympic Games featuring these two magnificent world champions – Anna Meares and Shane Perkins. Tickets will sell fast, so get in quick.” Ticket to the championships went on pre-sale to Cycling Australia members on Monday, with tickets selling strongly the minute they were released. Meares, who will bring her own army of supporters to sit in dedicated Cyclones HQ section in the stands, is looking forward to defending her three rainbow jerseys – individual sprint, team sprint and keirin – in front of a vibrant Australian crowd. Following on from the recent success and thriving interest in cycling across Australia, UCI Track Cycling World Championships Organising Committee chair Malcolm Speed said the event promises to expand on the growing interest in cycling in Australia. "After the huge success of the UCI Road World Championships in Melbourne and Geelong last year, the recent performances of the Cyclones at the 2011 track world championships and the win of Cadel Evans at the Tour de France, cycling in Australia is on a high,” Speed said. "With Melbourne the events capital of Australia and the buzz around cycling in Australia at the moment, these championships are expected to receive unprecedented demand for tickets."

Cycling Australia CEO Graham Fredericks agrees and is looking forward to the recent success transferring to a full house at Hisense Arena. "We have seen previous cycling events at Hisense Arena, such as the 2004 UCI Track World Championships and 2006 Commonwealth Games sell out rapidly and given the importance of these championships in an Olympic year, it will be no different this time,” Fredericks said.
"We have worked hard to great a range of ticketing options for cycling fans, in particular the Cyclones HQ section where fans can get together to cheer on the Australian Cyclones team. 

"The interest we have received from members, cycling fans and Melbourne’s sporting publics indicated that we are on track for a great event.”
Tickets go on sale to the general public at 9 am tomorrow morning (Thursday 20 October 2011; Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time). UCI Track Cycling World Championships – Fast Facts