Glaetzer and McCulloch chasing more World Cup gold

Eight of Australia's top track sprinters are ready to light up the boards as the road to Rio continues at the second round of the Track World Cup series in Cambridge, New Zealand this weekend.

CYCLING: Eight of Australia's top track sprinters are ready to light up the boards as the road to Rio continues at the second round of the Track World Cup series in Cambridge, New Zealand this weekend.

The 2015/16 season got off to an exciting start for Matthew Glaetzer as he claimed both sprint and keirin titles at the Oceania Championships in Invercargill in October. Glaetzer then added silver in the keirin at the opening round of the Track World Cup series in Cali, Colombia later in October.

"It has been a good start to the season so far," Glaetzer said. "The more racing I do, the better I race and the more I learn."

It will be the first time New Zealand has hosted a round of the World Cup series and the first in Oceania since Melbourne in December 2010, five years ago.

"Having a World Cup close to home is a real advantage with minimal time zone changes and a nice change from our usual long haul transit times," explained Glaetzer on the benefits of a World Cup close to home.

With the Rio Olympic Games rapidly approaching there is only two main competitions following the World Cup series, the Cycling Australia Track National Championships in Adelaide in February and UCI Track World Championships in London in March.

"These last few competitions are really our last chance to get our race craft ready for the Olympics, which is both daunting and exciting at the same time.

"I am actually quite interested in how I will stack up against the rest of the world at this stage of Olympic preparations," added Glaetzer. "The team sprint is a major focus for us and putting down a fast time to earn us a medal race is what we are aiming for.

"Personally I would obviously want to progress deep into the sprint competition, but my main goal is to just race well with no mistakes because that is ultimately what the Olympics will require."

Three-time World Champion Kaarle McCulloch will be looking to build on her success at the Oceania Championships, where she claimed gold medals in the sprint, team sprint and 500m time trial.

"The Oceania Championships results was a little unexpected in some ways but in other ways it didn't surprise me. I have been working really hard this year and doing some great stuff with my coach Sean Eadie and team at the NSWIS and it just solidified in my mind that I am on the right track!”

McCulloch will be looking to repeat her gold medal winning performance at the Guadalajara World Cup last season.

"The win in Mexico last year with Steph was unbelievable," McCulloch explained. "I really did not expect that result! It was so nice to stand on top of the podium and to have that taste of success after a long hard battle to just make a team again it really gave me the extra push of self belief.

"But the team sprint lies as my sole priority. I am working hard on position one and after my World Championships performance with Anna and I'm aiming at putting together another performance that will again show the selectors I am the one they need to select.

"That is my goal in Cambridge - to further build my case for selection with results and by the end of the track season be on the team heading to Rio!"

In addition to her team sprint focus, McCulloch will also have the opportunity to race the sprint in Cambridge.

"I will also have a shot at the individual sprint in Cambridge which is exciting. It will be my first international sprint event since Manchester in 2013. But I have no expectations for it, I am curious to know what I can do and excited to see how I fair against the worlds best again"

The full sprint team is Kaarle McCulloch, Anna Meares and Stephanie Morton (women) and Patrick Constable, Matthew Glaetzer, Nathan Hart, Peter Lewis and Jacob Schmid (men).

Team sprint qualifying is on Friday December 4 with the finals on Saturday. Saturday also includes the women's sprint and men's keirin and on Sunday the men's sprint and women's keirin.

Endurance Women

Ashlee ANKUDINOFF (NSW)
Georgia BAKER (TAS)
Amy CURE (TAS)
Annette EDMONDSON (SA)
Melissa HOSKINS (WA)
Isabella KING (WA)

Endurance Men

Jack BOBRIDGE (SA)
Luke DAVISON (SA)
Alex EDMONDSON (SA)
Michael HEPBURN (QLD)
Mitchell MULHERN (QLD)
Glenn O'SHEA (SA)

Sprint Women

Kaarle MCCULLOCH (NSW)
Anna MEARES (SA)
Stephanie MORTON (SA)

Sprint Men

Patrick CONSTABLE (SA)
Matthew GLAETZER (SA)
Nathan HART (ACT)
Peter LEWIS (NSW)
Jacob SCHMID (VIC)

Cycling Australia