Aussies ready for the Kiwis at Cali

Nov 25th, 11. The Kiwi endurance track riders alerted the world to their top form at this week's Oceania Track Championships and the Australians are looking forward to a new battle in Colombia.

In Cycling Australia's press release announcing their team for the second round of the UCI Track World Cup Series being staged in Cali, Colombia December 1-3, they talked of the impressive performances by New Zealand's top pursuit teams at the Oceania Championships.  

The Kiwi men clocked the fourth fastest time in history with their winning time of 3:55.295 over 4000m while the women's trio was only 19/100s of a second off world record pace with their 3000m time of 3:19.759.

Both Australian men's and women's coaches believe these top performances will have a positive psychological impact on the Australian riders.

"It sharpens the focus of our riders and I think that's a good thing," said Cycling Australia Track Endurance Head Coach, Ian McKenzie.

Women's Track Endurance Coach, Gary Sutton agreed.

"What New Zealand's women have done is throw down the challenge as they have now recorded the fastest time in the world this year," said Sutton.

"Cali is a chance for our women to put their hands up to make the short squad. The pressure is building on riders vying for places in London but if they can't handle the pressure now they won't handle it next year."

The Australians are sending a high powered lineup to face the Kiwis.

Four of the five Aussie men heading to Colombia are reigning World Champions with Rohan Dennis, Luke Durbridge and Michael Hepburn members of the victorious 2011 World Championship pursuit team. Michael Freiberg is the reigning omnium World Champion. For the women, Sarah Kent and Josephine Tomic were team pursuit World Champions in 2010.

NZ Team

The New Zealand riders selected for Cali leave Auckland tonight.

The women's and men's pursuit teams have the same lineup they had in Invercargill this week - Alison Shanks, Lauren Ellis, Jaime Nielsen and Jesse Sergent, Sam Bewley, Aaron Gate and Marc Ryan.

World omnium silver medallist Shane Archbold has been selected, along with Joanne Kiesanowski, who is expected to travel despite withdrawing from the second day of the omnium yesterday on a precautionary basis after feeling unwell.

There are also four Kiwi sprinters heading to Cali; Sam Webster, Simon Van Velthooven, Ethan Mitchell and Eddie Dawkins.

BikeNZ is expecting the riders' form to hold for the Cali World Cup, subject to the rigours of 30 hours travel and the open-air environment at the track.

"Many of the leading nations will have full strength teams at Cali so it will provide a reasonable litmus test on how we stack up," said BikeNZ High Performance Director, Mark Elliott.