After a
disappointing world championships campaign in Manchester, where the Australian team was comprehensively
beaten by Great
Britain, Cycling Australia Head Track Coach,
Martin Barras believes his squad has regrouped and will put on a show tomorrow
night at Revolution 3.
Great
Britain
dominated the Olympic events in Manchester winning a stunning seven gold medals
in Olympic events along with the Australian-held world record in the team
pursuit.
Australia claimed two bronze
medals – the team pursuit and Katie Mactier in the individual
pursuit.
“People at Rev 3
will look at the group and say, wow, they are getting on to it for the Games.
For the group as a whole, my expectation is that they will indicate that they
have stepped it up,” Barras said.
“We had a good hard
solid look at ourselves following the world championships and made some tough
decisions within the team.
“We have had eight
good weeks reflecting on that and we are now at a very good
level.
“The crowd at Rev 3
will see the make up of our Olympic team ready to tackle the
world.”
Gosford
cyclist Phil Thuaux and Athens Olympic gold
medallist Anna Meares will
participate in specially arranged Olympic qualifying attempts at Revolution 3
tomorrow night. They will be joined by Australia’s pre-nominated Beijing sprint stars
Shane Kelly, Ryan Bayley, Daniel Ellis and Mark French on the Rev 3
program.
Meares,
who was also today pre-nominated for the Australian team, needs to ride quicker
than 11.77 seconds for a flying 200m to secure her Games berth after missing the
world championships following a horror crash at the Los Angeles World Cup in
January.
Speaking at today’s
media conference previewing tomorrow night’s Revolution 3, Meares is excited
about getting back into the saddle.
“I’m feeling really good, really fit
and strong and healthy and I haven’t had any troubles for one to two months now
which is a fantastic feeling. I’m a little bit nervous and a bit anxious and I
just want to get that time over and done with,” Meares
said.
“I just want to prove to the
selectors that the hard work I’ve done over the last couple of months is going
to be enough to settle their minds and that I can do the job in Beijing.
“When you’re training with the likes
of Ryan Bayley and Shane Kelly they don’t give you too much room just because
you’re a girl and you’ve had a crash and might be
afraid.”
“I’ve definitely had great practice
training with those guys and I really look at tomorrow night as the start of my
season.”
Thuaux will attempt to put the heat
on Olympic selectors when he lines up in a specially arranged 4000m individual
pursuit.
Thuaux
needs to beat 4 minutes 20 seconds – and time which requires three seconds to be
sliced off his lifetime best.- to be considered for
selection.
“If Phil does a 4:20
then he’ll be one of eight in the mix for the seven spots in the track endurance
team at the Games,” challenged Barras.
Also
making an appearance at Revolution 3 will be Ryan Bayley, the dual Athens gold medallist, who
is on the rebound after a disappointing world championships campaign, and is
keen to unleash his renowned speed and power at Vodafone Arena on Thursday
night.
Featuring Australia’s best riders and a packed
program of racing and entertainment, the Revolution series is designed to
breathe new life back into track cycling and create an exciting sporting
spectacle.