European Track Championships 2010 – A Preview
The European Track Championships are going to begin and kick-start the run into the London Olympics today. Since the championship is the part of qualification process, everyone would be eager to take part into it and to race hard.
It may have come to your knowledge that the rules for participating into the Olympics have been changed, and now only one rider per nation can take part into sprint, Keirin and Omnium events. For most of the cyclists, particularly from UK and France, the
new rules are simply ridiculous. For them, it is just like applying the same rules upon 100m final athletics. Both would keep the spectators from observing the real competition.
The implementation of new rules means that a lot of great riders would be missing the real competition. For instance, in sprint event, the GB riders would have to surpass Sir Chris Hoy which would rather be an uphill task. It also means that the younger
cyclists coming through would find it further hard to make into the Olympics.
As the European track championships is on its way, the spectators would be looking forward to watch their favourite riders compete over the weekend. As a matter of fact, the team pursuit would be watched closely. According to the reports, Ed Clancy was favourite
for the event and people would be interested in knowing about what’s going on.
Ed Clancy, the English professional road and track rider had always been concerned about the team pursuit, but after winning the Omnium at world championships earlier this year, he has found a new lease of life and has been into a great form. Perhaps that
is why his fans are expecting from him to make it into the Ominum again.
As for other events are concerned, according to the reports, sprinters have been looking good. Once again, the expectations are there with Vicky Pendleton who would be very hard to beat, similar expectations from Sir Chris Hoy. Moreover, Matt Crampton also
has started performing impressively in the recent years. The guy would be riding in the team sprint and it would be a great race to watch.
Another potential athlete, Jason Queally can also depict surprising results. The team pursuit rider and the kilometre champion from the Sydney Olympics, despite of being 40-years old has been settled into the team amid his impressive performance.
Jason possess both the speed and the power, however, the only thing guy is struggling with at the moment is his technical side that is to have a smooth line on the front and to produce even splits. Most probably, this would come with more time on the boards.
But having Jason in the team is perhaps very exciting for everyone involved into the race.
On the other front, the former rider Paul Manning has been appointed as the coach of women’s endurance team. This is a good initiative as the team could not have a coach with better understanding of the sport. So, on the basis of this the spectators can
also have good hopes from the women’s squad.
Talking about Geraint Thomas, the guy is hoping to ride at the world cup going to be held in Manchester in February. His participation is not guaranteed as there would be seven to eight guys who would be fighting for the spot. Thanks to the competition for
places which now keeps everybody pushing to perform well, it can only be good for the riders.
The sprint events at the Euros would be worth watching this time as the team GB would take on equally stronger and traditional rivals from Germany and France. For the competitions in endurance events, Denmark had bagged the title for team pursuit at world
championships held in 2009, but since then, they lost a few good riders and now they are not as strong enough to defend the title. Despite of a strong line up for the event, the team GB can still expect to stand at the top and can start the road to London
with a huge bang.
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