London Track World Cup - Women's Individual Pursuit

London Track World Cup - Women's Individual Pursuit, a set on Flickr.

The Women's individual pursuit, as won by Joanna Rowsell of Great Britain.

Preview: London Track Cycling World Cup - Day 4

The final day of the London Track World Cup is Sunday. It's Day 4 and there are only 4 different events - but there is still plenty of action. BBC Two have there most detailed day yet, with coverage from 14:45 until the close at 18:00, alongside coverage on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. And if Hugh Porter's commentary doesnt do it for you, you can also watch today live on British Eurosport - who have an hour and a half's highlights package in the evening of both Sunday and Monday.

One to Watch: Men's Sprint

Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

The big Head to Head of the Weekend? I would say so! And better yet, both are British. Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny. In the Beijing Olympics, Hoy beat Kenny - but at last year's World Championships, it was Kenny who beat Hoy. It is set to be an intense, friendly, rivalry over this year to decided whether Hoy will ride all 3 sprint events in London, or share them with Kenny.

But another very interesting name to throw into the rivalry is Gregory Bauge (France). Jason Kenny is the official World Champion, but in actual fact Bauge beat him in the final. Bauge is also the World Champion from 2010 and 2009, but is set to be the Villain of the Velodrome this year. Why? In November 2011 Bauge was given a one year ban for missing three drugs tests. But he is still eligible to ride here, because that ban was backdated to start from December 2010. He loses his results from the period, but it can hardly be claimed to be much of a ban, it didnt cause Bauge to miss much racing at all.

The format for the Men's sprint is the same as the Women's, as described in detail for the Day 3 preview. Flying lap qualification followed by knockout rounds. But who to look out for beyond Hoy, Kenny and Bauge? There is a 3rd Brit in Matt Crampton, who rides in the Team Sky colours, while the French can field the likes of Mickael Bourgoin and Kevin Sireau. Germany should be strong aswell: Robert Forstemann, Stefan Botticher, Maximilian Levy and Rene Enders have all had at least 1 decent result in the World Cup so far this season.

Jason Kenny and Kevin Sireau, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

The World Cup leader is Russian Denis Dmitriev - who beat Jason Kenny at the astana event, only losing there to Chris Hoy in the final. Philip Njisane (Trinidad and Tobago) and Lei Zhang (China) have also had good a World Cup season but need something special to secure Olympic qualification. Malaysia are also under pressure to earn a qualification spot here. Can Azizulhasni Awang repeat performances such as his World Championship Silver Medal in 2009 to ensure a return here in the summer?

British Gold Chance: Men's Team Pursuit

Team Pursuit: Great Britain, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

It's a chance, but it won't be easy. A Silver is guaranteed for the team of Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Steven Burke and Peter Kennaugh after qualifying 2nd in a time of 3:58.446. The problem? Australia qualified fastest with 3:57.885. Australia arrived with their full strength team afterall - Rohan Dennis, Jack Bobridge, Luke Durbridge and Michael Hepburn.Britain led for most of the first kilometre before Australia took over. Britain's 3rd kilometre was faster, but it wasnt enough to match Australia.

New Zealand and Belgium will ride off for the Bronze medal.

Olympic Event: Women's Omnium

Women's Individual Pursuit, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

The Women's Omnium has it's second half today, with the 3km Individual Pursuit, Scratch Race and 500m Time Trial. Laura Trott, Sarah Hammer (USA) and Tara Whitten (Canada) - the 3 likely favourites if Trott has a strong first day - are all strong at the Individual Pursuit, Sarah Hammer is in fact the World Champion in the event! The Scratch race is more of a lottery, and could prove decisive, while the 500m Time Trial really is Trott's best event. She won it in the Omnium World Championships last year (where she only finished 11th Overall after a dissapointing opening day) and she won it at the Cali World Cup - beating Hammer and Whitten on both occasions. If she is still in contention at this stage, she can really apply the pressure on her rivals.

See the Day 3 Preview for more information on the leading riders in the Women's Omnium.

Olympic Event: Women's Keirin

Women's Keirin, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

The other event of the day is the Women's Keirin - which is set to make it's Olympic debut this year. As with the Men, riders will need to either win their heat, or win their repechage, to make it through to the Semi Finals, with the Top 3 in each Semi making it to the Final. Victoria Pendleton is of course the lead British contender, but guess who is the World Champion in this event? Anna Meares of course! Pendleton only managed 7th at last year's Worlds, but to put it into perspective, Meares was 7th the year before that.

The Women's Keirin is probably the most open of all Olympic Sprint events. Olga Panarina (Belarus), and Clara Sanchez (France) both medalled at the Worlds last year, while Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania) was the 2010 World Champion, and Shang Guo (China) the 2009 World Champion. Pendleton has only ever been World Champion once, back in 2007.

As World Cup leader, Krupeckaite is the form rider of the season, which included victory in the Cali round. Guo won in Beijing, Sanchez in Astana, while Kristina Vogel (Germany) has taken 2 second players Ekaterina Gnidenko (Russia - riding for the Petroholding Leningrad team) has also been consistently reaching the Final. Daniela Lareal (Venezuela) podiumed in Beijing, while Jess Varnish will also ride in the event.

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That's it for the action in the London Track Cycling World Cup! Sunday will end with the presentation of the overall winner of the London World Cup - with points being scored by results in all events. Then the winning nation of the World Cup season as a whole will be crowned - it's likely to be either Germany or France.

Preview: London Track Cycling World Cup - Day 3

Saturday is the longest day of competition at the Track World Cup. Starting at 9am, ending at 21:39. Even longer for me, as I will be taking a 6am train from Cardiff Central to hopefully arrive at the Velodrome not long after 9! BBC Two will again have coverage in the evening - this time 2 hours - from 7pm to 9pm. Red Button will cover the last 40 minutes, while it will all be online. Radio joins the fun aswell, with 5 Live Sports Extra broadcasting from 6:25 until the end of the day's racing.

Just 5 events today - although the presence of two Omniums means that there is still a great amount of variety. The mixture of Day 2 of the Men's Omnium and Day 1 of the Women's Omnium actually means that all events of the Omnium will be ridden today.

One to Watch: Women's Sprint

Victoria Pendleton, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

It's very hard to pick a highlight today, but Im going to go for the Women's Sprint. It runs throughout the day, and is the continuation of the fierce rivalry between British Golden Girl Vicky Pendleton, and Aussie Anna Meares. Stemming from a coming together in a Keirin race in the 2006 Bordeaux World Championships, Pendleton and Meares have not been the best of friends. In Beijing, Pendleton dominated Meares to take Olympic Gold. But since then, Meares has emerged as the strongest Women's sprinter in the Velodrome - defeating Pendleton in the Semi Finals of the 2011 Worlds to go on to become World Champion and prevent Pendleton taking a 5th consecutive title.

The event starts with a flying lap qualification, similar to the first event of the Omnium. Infact, the Women's Omnium Flying Lap comes directly after the Sprint qualification - so if youve never seen a Flying Lap before today, you'll certainly have seen plenty before the Morning has even ended! The Top 16 Women proceed to the knockout stages, and are also seeded based on their times. Fastest qualifier rides against 16th qualifier, and you can figure out the rest. The seeding lasts for the entire competition, so in the 1/4 finals we see Q1 or Q16 vs Q8 or Q9.

The Sprint is an event of tactics. From a standing start, it lasts 3 laps - but it is by no means flat out, usually only the final lap will be. Its all tactics for the first lap and a half - some riders want to lead out, some don't, and theres maneovring at all sorts of speed (or even at a standstill!) as they try to gain an advantage on their rival, and most importantly, get the jump on them to catch them out. In the 1/8 finals, there is just 1 round. The winner goes through, the loser goes into the B competition. From the 1/4 finals onwards the competition works as a best of 3 - the first to win 2 rounds goes through, with the 3rd round only being used if it is 1-1 after 2 rounds.

Meares and Pendleton may be the big names, but who knows what level their form will be at this stage of the season. Simon Krupeckaite (Lithuania) and Shang Guo (China) are the most obvious next threats as the only other medallists in recent World Championships, while Olga Panarina (Belarus) made the Semi Finals at the 2011 Worlds. Krupeckaite is the World Cup leader, while Guo won her only round of the World Cup in Beijing. Pendleton hasnt ridden the World Cup yet this season, but Meares has - and was surprisingly beaten in the Astana Final by Ljubov Shulika (Ukraine). Kristina Vogel (Germany) won the Cali round. Jess Varnish will also ride the Sprint. She was 12th at the Astana World Cup, and 11th at last year's World Championships.

British Gold Chance: Men's Keirin

Keirin, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

A bit of an odd event, the Keirin. After all, despite being a bike race. it features a motor-powered bike (called a Derny)! Its also the only race to featurer a starter's gun, and the most likely event for crashes. It last s 8 laps, and for roughly the first 5, the derny leads the way, slowly increasing the pace. The 6 riders behind will battle for their preferred position, but cannot pass the motorbike. The motorbike then pulls off, and the riders are free to race. Tactics differ. Chris Hoy famously likes to lead from the front, and usually nobody can pass him. But you have to be strong to leadout, and others prefer to come from behind instead. In a race with Chris Hoy, the best tactic for the competition is often to fight for his wheel, then see if you can hold that wheel and try to pass him at the finish. 

Round 1 sees 6 heats of 6 riders. Only the winner goes through - the rest enter the Repechages. There are 6 Repechages heats and again, only winning is enough. This leaves 12 riders and in the 2 semi finals, the top 3 in each then proceed to the final, to fight for Gold. Shane Perkins (Australia) pipped Chris Hoy to become World Champion last year, while Maximillian Levy (Germany) was 2009 World Champion when Hoy was out injured. Francois Pervis (France) is the World Cup leader but not riding here. Mickael Bourgoin may instead ride for France. Hoy has only raced the Astana World Cup, where he was beaten to 2nd by Christos Volikakis (Greece). The European champion is Matt Crampton and while Hoy is favourite to ride the Keirin at the Olympics, this event is Crampton's best chance to ride the Olympics, and he will really be focusing on this - not being part of the Team Sprint. Teun Mulder (Netherlands) is another consistent threat in the event.

Keirin, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

My personal favourite Keirin rider though, is Azizulhasni Awang (Malaysia - but riding for YSD Track Team here). In both the Keirin and the Sprint, his trademark is to cross the line with a wheelie. He sensationally won the Commonwealth Games title, finding his way through a gap that was barely there. But he was harshly disqualified for it, the title instead going to Josiah Ng (Also Malaysia). Big competition between the 2 is expected, with only 1 spot on offer for the Olympics, their most recent battle was last Sunday at the Asian championships - Ng won. Last year, Awang had the misfortune of a splinter through his leg at the Manchester World Cup in the Final, as the whole field - except the winner Hoy - crashed on the final lap. He is back though, and I cant wait to watch him. 

Olympic Events: Men's and Women's Omnium

The Women's Omnium starts today, with the Qualification, Flying Lap, Points Race and Elimination Race. These events were described in the Day 2 preview (where I also described the Men's contenders) - although the Women ride a shorter Points Race, 80 laps rather than 120. The Men's Omnium meanwhile, comes to a conclusion with the Individual Pursuit, Scratch Race and Time Trial. Having only ever seen the first 3 events of a Men's Omnium, Im looking forward to watching the Women's Omnium today, as well as the final 3 events of the Men's race.

Ben Swift, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

The Individual Pursuit is raced over the full Olympic distance - 4km (16 laps) for the Men, 3km (12 laps) for the Women. They will race two at a time, one starting on each straight. In a standalone Pursuit, the objective would either be set the fastest time, or catch the opponent. Here it is all about the time, so while we may see some riders catching others, they all still have to ride to the finish as fast as they can. This is the only event in the first session for the Men's Omnium.

The 5th leg of the Omnium for the Men is a 60km Scratch Race. Theres a strong chance of one or more riders being able to gain a lap, which will hugely benefit them in the Omnium overall standings, but otherwise, it is all about the positions on the final lap. Then the final event is the Time Trial and for the Men, this is a Kilometre TT. Again riding two at a time, the rider start in reverse order of their overall Omnium standings, so the last two to ride will be the leading riders in the competition - a nailbiting conclusion.

The only event after the Mens Omnium Kilometre on the day is the Womens Omnium Elimination Race, by which time we should have a good idea of the strongest Women in the competition. The World Championship medallists are all here: Tara Whitten (Canada), Sarah Hammer (USA) and Kirsten Wild (Netherlands) - in order of Gold, Silver and Bronze. Whitten also won the 2010 Worlds, and is favourite for the event, but it is still close. Leire Olaberria (Spain) was 3rd that year, while Britain's Lizzie Armistead took Silver. She has moved on from Track Cycling, so riding for Great Britain is Laura Trott. She is the European champion - where she beat Wild and Olaberria, and took 3rd in the Cali World Cup - only just behind Whitten, while Hammer was the strong winner there. Trott knows that she needs to ride well - Dani King was 2nd in the Astana Omnium, so there is plenty of competition amongst the British team.

Whitten, Hammer, Trott and Olaberria have only ridden the Cali World Cup. Not riding there was Eugeniya Romanyuta, the World Cup leader, and she is the World Cup leader because she won the Omniums in Astana and Beijing. London looks set to mark the showdown between her and the other leading contenders. With a 2nd, 3rd and 5th to her name so far in the World Cups, Li Huang (China) is also a threat, while Malgorata Wojtrya (Poland) was 3rd in Beijing. Also look out for Ausrine Trebaite (Lithuania) who has ridden every round with a best of 4th in Cali, helping her to 4th in the World Cup standings (Consistency helps with the World Cup, as Ive already said!). As things stand, Lithuania are not qualified for the Olympics. Only 8 European riders are allowed, and Lithuania are currently ranked as the 9th best European team, just behind France. Pascale Jeuland (France) will be her competition here.

Lizzie Armitstead, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

Not in the Olympics: Women's Individual Pursuit

Also taking place today is a standalone Women's Individual Pursuit of 3km (12 laps). Britain took Gold and Silver in this event at the Olympics, but this was one of the events that lost out in the schedule changes. This event will feature riders who have already raced in the Team Pursuit, but are not versatile enough to compete in the Omnium.

This may include the World Cup leader Alison Shanks (New Zealand) who won the only Individual Pursuit in the World Cup so far, in Cali. She beat Britain's Wendy Houvenaghel there, but VeloUk reckons that Joanna Rowsell will be riding for Great Britain here. Rowsell beat both Houvenaghel and Trott at the 2011 British Championships in this event, with a time that would have won the 2011 World Championships. Sarah Hammer (USA) actually won the Worlds, but as already mentioned, will ride the Omnium at London.

This is likely to be a two horse race between Rowsell and Shanks, with an outsider being World Bronze medallist Vilika Sereikaite (Lithuania) or Lesya Kalitovska (Ukraine) who took 3rd in Cali. The qualifying for this event is the first event of the day on Saturday, and while I aim to see as much as possible, it is fair to say that the qualifying is the most missable event of the day - if not the entire World Cup. So if you have tickets for both sessions on Saturday, arriving at 10am rather than 9am will not see you miss too much!

Preview: London Track Cycling World Cup - Day 2

The finals of the Track World Cup begin on Friday, Day 2, with 6 finals along with the start of the the Men's Omnium. The early session lasts from 12 midday to 4pm, with the evening session from half 6 to just after 10. BBC Two will have an hour's of coverage from 7 O'Clock, with the rest of the night's action available online and on the Red Button.

One to Watch: Men's Omnium

Ben Swift, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

The Omnium is the latest addition to the Olympic calendar, consisting of 6 events: Flying Lap, Points Race, Elimination Race, Individual Pursuit, Scratch Race and Kilometre TT. The premise is simple enough. If you win an event, you get 1 point. 2nd place gets 2 points, 3rd place gets 3 points and so on. The rider with the fewest amount of points at the end of the event, wins!

With a maximum of 24 entrants allowed, qualifying is required at the start as usually more than 24 nations want to enter! Qualifying consists of 2 half length (15km/60 Laps) Points Races - the Top 12 in each proceed to the main event. This mainly removes the weakest riders from the competition, but the riders have to be careful to make sure they dont miss out - young Brit George Atkins failed to qualify for the Omnium in the Beijing round, which was an embarrassment for sure.

First event is the Flying Lap - an event also used as qualifying for the Sprint competitions. Riders will lap the Velodrome at the top of the banking, building up speed, before sweeping down to the centre to help build their speed and set the fastest lap possible. Then Event 2 is another Points Race! This time it is 30km long (120 laps) with Sprints ever 10 laps - worth 5,3,2 and 1 points for the first 4 riders. The winner is the rider with the most points in the race - with the added incentive of a 20 point bonus for gaining a lap. (Likewise though, a 20 point loss for losing a lap). If you are going to the Afternoon session, it really is Points Race galore as there is scheduled to be Qualifying rounds for the stand alone Men's Points Race, if enough riders enter that event - so there could be 5 Points Races in the Afternoon session.

But the highlight Omnium event of the day is the final event of the night - the Elimination race.

Omnium Elimination Race, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

It's a dramatic race to watch. Like the Madison (which is sadly not present in the World Cup) it is a great spectator event inside the velodrome, which doesnt always transfer well onto the TV schemes. Every 2 laps the last rider in the field is knocked out of the race, with a device fitted to their bike to flash at them when they have been eliminated. Riders have to be aware throughout, its all too easy to find yourself at the back, and struggling to avoid elimination.

Part of the fun however, is when the inevitable happens, and a rider even refuses to drop out once he is eliminated, or claims not to realise he has been eliminated. Well, I say fun - it doesn't help having a rider interfering with the rest of the race, but it certainly helps add to the drama. And as numbers decrease, the race becomes increasingly tactical, all the way down to the final lap, where the final 2 riders battle it out for victory.

As a new event, its still a challenge to identify the standout riders for the event, and it's probably the most open of all Olympic events. Ben Swift looks set to ride for Great Britain, his previous Omnium experience being a 6th place at last year's World Cup in Manchester - his best event being the Elimination race, where he took 2nd behind Italian Elia Viviani. Viviani is in form on the road, and down to ride here. Roger Kluge (Germany), and Juan Esteban Arango (Colombia) have all won rounds of the Omnium this season - while consistency makes Brian Coquard (France) the World Cup leader, and he is also here! Shane Archbold (New Zealand) domianted the Manchester Omnium last year and is the World Silver medallist, while Gijs van Hoecke (Belgium) was the World Silver medallist. Ho Sung Cho (Korea) is 2nd in the World Cup standings, and was 2nd in Manchester last year, while Eloy Teruel (Spain), Martyn Irvine (Ireland), Wim Stroetinga (Netherlands) and Zachary Bell (Canada) are also worth a mention. That's 12 riders Ive mentioned there who are all capable of doing well - this is not an event to miss!

Olympic Events: Men's and Women's Team Sprint

Malaysia Team Sprint, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

Qualifying is in the afternoon, Finals in the evening. For the Men, three riders take part - the first leads them over the first lap then peels off, the second leads them on the second lap, before the final rider does the final lap alone. Its the same format for the Women, but with only 2 riders.

For the Women, Kaarle McCulloch and Anna Meares are close to unbeatable - World record holders and World Champions for the past 3 years. Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish are the British entries and amongst the challengers for a Silver medal - with ultimate aspirations of Gold, but that will take a lot! China (Shuang Guo and Jinjie Gong), Germany (Kristina Vogel and Miriam Welte), France (Clara Sanchez and Sandie Clair) and Lithuania (Gintare Gaivenyte and Simona Krupeckaite) are also ones to watch. Ukraine are the World Cup leaders and will wear the World Cup jerseys - but this is more an award for consistency, the top teams have not ridden in every World Cup.

Britain are the Men's Olympic Champions, but it took them until Beijing to perfect their lineup 4 years ago. Jamie Staff retired, and since then they have struggled to find the right lineup for this year. It looks like it will be Ross Edgar, Jason Kenny and Chris Hoy this week - and we will have to see how they match up. France and Germany are the nations to beat. France (Michaël D'Almeida, Gregory Bauge and Kevin Sireau) were the World Champions - but Bauge received a backdated suspension for missing 3 drugs tests, with the suspension covering last year's Worlds - so instead the World Champions are Germany (Rene Enders, Maximillian Levy and Stefan Nimke). They certainly deserve it though, having taken away Britain's World Record in December with a time of 42.914. The Germany B-Team ErdGas 2012 will wear the World Cup leaders jerseys, while like with the team pursuit, the Russians could prove to be surprise contenders, and lets not forget Australia either!

British Gold Chance: Women's Team Pursuit

Already covered in the Day 1 preview, the finals of the Women's Team Pursuit are on Friday night. We'll get an idea of who is likely to win based on Thursday's qualification times, but on paper, this could be the best chance of a British victory today.

Not in the Olympics: Men's Kilometre, Women's Scratch Race and Men's Points Race

In an Olympic season, those events not featuring in the Olympics find themselves on the fringes of the World Cup scene, not featuring in every round. They will still all be in the World Championships, but it is harder to predict who will ride it, and who the favourites are.

Scratch Race, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

In the Kilometre, riders have 4 laps to go as fast as possible, from a standing start. Chris Hoy is the Olympic Champion, and the Kilometre's controversial removal from the Olympics after Athens paved the way for Hoy to become the superstar he is today. Since then though, the Kilometre has undoubtedly lost it's former prestige. World Champion Stefan Nimke (Germany) leads the field but Look out for Brit Matthew Crampton in the Black and Red Team Sky colours. Mickael D'Almeida (France) and Simon van Velthooven (New Zealand) are other notable names on a 23 man startlist.

The clash of the Womens Team Pursuit and Womens Scratch Race is also not ideal, but with only four teams riding the Team Pursuit today, this might not be the case. We could see Women's Omnium riders use this event as a warmup before the Omnium starts on Saturday, or simply riders not down for other events. This seems to be the case for Dani King. She won't feature in either the Team Pursuit or the Omnium, so this will be her only race on the London boards - and she did take a Bronze in this event at the 2011 World Championships. The Scratch Race is simply a race to the line - first one to finish after the 40 laps is the winner. The laps prior to the finish should see action though, as riders attempt to gain a lap to increase their chances of victory. Kelly Druyts (Belgium) is the World Cup leader after winning the Cali round ahead of Katarzyn Pawlowska (Poland), and both are on the start list.

Finally, the last Points Race of the day! There could be as many as 6 on Friday in total, although I would guess that there wont be any need for Qualifiers for the standalone Men's Points Race given that it clashes with the Omnium. No British entrants for this unfortunately. Belgian Ignmar de Poortere came 2nd in the only Points Race World Cup in previous rounds, Cali, where Colombian Edwin Avila used home advantage to finish 3rd. Avila is the World Champion however, after being the only rider to take a lap in last year's World Championships. Look out for his rainbow bands!

Preview: London Track Cycling World Cup - Day 1

Starting this Thursday, the London UCI Track Cycling World Cup doubles up as the latest round in the London Prepares Series of Olympic Test Events. It is the first time that the London Olympic Velodrome will be raced competitively, and all eyes will be on the event as the first indication this year of just who will be taking gold medals in the same venue in August.

London Olympic Velodrome, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

The action opens on Thursday with the Qualifying for the Men's and Women's Team Pursuits - both Olympic events. The Women's final follows the next day but unusually for a Track World Cup, the Men won't ride again until Sunday. With less to worry about in terms of recovery, this could lead to some fast times in both qualifications and the finals for the Men!

It's sure to be a busy night of Team Pursuiting. Looking at the entry lists for the event suggests that up to 22 teams could be attempting to qualify for the Men's event - with the fastest two teams going through to the final, and the two next best going into the Bronze medal ride. Four teams standout as favourites aswell, in order of their positions at the 2011 World Championships: Australia, Russia, Great Britain, New Zealand.

Team Pursuit: Great Britain, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

Luke Durbridge, Michael Hepburn and Rohan Dennis will lead a strong Australian team here as 3 of the 4 World Championship winning team - Jack Bobridge is likely to strengthen them at this years World Championships and Olympics. They also lead the World Cup standings having finished 2nd in every World Cup so far, but they have yet to ride in their full strength lineup. Then there's the dark horses, the Russians - riding under the guise of the Rusvelo team. Trained by Heiko Salzwedel - who has worked with the British team, and helped guide the Danish squad to a Silver medal in Beijing - they have really emerged over the past year. A 3:56.127 on a fast Astana track certainly served as a warning to the competition.

The New Zealand team benefited from an Australian crash to win the Cali World Cup. Sam Bewley, Aaron Gate and Marc Ryan are regulars in the team and are here in London - possibly to be joined by Westley Gough, and the Olympic Bronze medallists are a consistent threat in the Team Pursuit. Victory would be a surprise, but they are certainly capable of making the final on a good day.

That leaves the British team! Secrecy reigns from within British Cycling, after months of hard training - and the identification of the team remains unknown. Ed Clancy and Geraint Thomas are likely safe bets - but then the other 2 slots could be filled by any of Peter Kennaugh, Ben Swift, Steven Burke and Andy Tennant. Clancy and Thomas of course won Gold in Beijing, while Burke medalled in the Individual Pursuit. They are clearly determined to win the World Cup - Clancy won't be riding the Omnium here, despite being European champion. A fast time will be required, and with any luck, Australia and Great Britain will qualify fastest on Thursday, to set up a mouth watering final on Sunday afternoon.

Wendy Houvenaghel, Joanna Rowsell and Sarah Storey, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

But of course, the first event of the evening on Thursday will be qualification for the Women's Team Pursuit, and as World Champions, Great Britain are the team to beat. At those World Championships in Apeldoorn, it was the trio of experienced Wendy Houvenaghel along with young stars Dani King and Laura Trott. All three are in the squad here, but with one of King and Trott likely to ride the omnium, it is possible that Joanna Rowsell will also feature - Rowsell being a Double World Champion in this event herself. They start as favourites, but by no means is victory a given.

There could potentially be 20 teams riding here, and though Ukraine do lead the World Cup standings, the biggest threats are likely to be the Americans. Led by the superb Sarah Hammer - look out for her later in the event in the Omnium - along with former sprinter Jennie Reed, they were the Silver medallists as last year's World Championships. They hold the World Record for the event - albeit set at altitude in Mexico. There's also Australia, the 2010 World Champions, which incidentally was the only time that Britain have not been World Champions, while just like with the Men, New Zealand are consistently contenders in the Team Pursuit.

Thursday night may get a little tedious for spectators, with up to 40 Team Pursuit rides to watch, but the Team Pursuit is a fascinating event to watch nonetheless - and one of the most hotly contested.

The Olympics are coming

Olympic Rings at St Pancras Station, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.

205 days to go!