The world’s top track cyclists continue their road to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. But to close the pre-Olympic year, the UCI Track Cycling World Cup stops over in a new venue: the Avantidrome, situated in Cambridge on the North Island of New Zealand, which opened its doors in 2014. The world’s elite track specialists last visited Oceania for a UCI event in 2010 when Melbourne hosted the opening round of the 2010-2011 UCI Track Cycling World Cup. Two years later, in 2012, New Zealand organised the UCI Junior Track Cycling Championships in Invercargill.
Cycling New Zealand CEO, Andrew Matheson is looking forward to this weekend’s competition: “The venue is shaping up and it is quite exciting now that we have most of the teams arrived and training here at the Avantidrome,” he said. “There’s been a tremendous amount of work gone in to hosting the event from our staff, and also from 200 volunteers, without whom we could not stage the event.
A total of 580 riders and staff from 39 countries are in Cambridge. The New Zealand public will witness 28 UCI World Champions and Olympic Champions in action.
Germany will defend its first place in the nations ranking. This task will be on the shoulders of Joachim Eilers in the keirin and in the team sprint – with René Enders and Max Niederlag -, Domenic Weinstein (individual pursuit), Kersten Thiele and Leon Rohde (Madison) and Kristina Vogel (keirin), all of whom tasted victory in Colombia.
After a good start to the season in Cali, the British contingent arrives in New Zealand with high ambitions but without losing sight of its Olympic objective: “We'll be going to New Zealand with the aim of scoring vital Olympic qualification points, particularly in the sprint events,” said the British Cycling’s Technical Director Shane Sutton. “We're in the fortunate position that our performance across men's and women's endurance has left us in a strong position in qualification allowing us to blood some of our younger academy riders.”
Also of note is the return to competition of the reigning UCI World Champion, France’s Greg Baugé, in the sprint.
The events can be followed live on tv.uci.ch.
Results and provisional rankings of the 2015-2016 UCI Track Cycling World Cup