New Zealand will head to the World Cup event in Mexico shortly with mixed feelings about the format.
Key changes have been made. The programme is totally Olympic; that is there are no non-Olympic events on the schedule, which is compressed into two demanding days.
One upside? The team pursuit for men and women follows the Olympic format of three rounds. But the absence of events like the madison, scratch race, points race and kilo hurt New Zealand as those races have proved invaluable in the past.
"You go to these events and it costs a lot of money to send a full team and those other events are great for us to have more experience at the highest level of racing," track team head coach Dayle Cheatley said.
"That's gone for us. We used to use a lot of those events if we were taking a reserve rider for the team sprint or pursuit -- it might be a development rider -- and put them in. That's the unfortunate thing with what the International Cycling Union have done."
Qualifying points for the Rio Olympics are a key factor in the cup programme -- which continues in London from December 5-7 and in Cali, Colombia from January 17-18 -- and each placing matters, not just podium finishes.
"The crucial thing is we make sure by the end of the Olympic qualifying process for all our team events that we're in the top nine nations," Cheatley said.
"That opens the door to having two individual sprinters and keirin riders (in Rio), which is very important for us."
Beijing and London Olympic team pursuit bronze medallist Westley Gough is back after an injury layoff.
Gough, the second fastest individual pursuiter New Zealand has had behind Jesse Sergent, has had knee problems since London.
"He's put a fair bit of volume into himself. There's still a bit to go but he's tracking well, and it's exciting for Westley to be back."
Cheatley said one of his priorities is beefing up the women's programme. Katie Schofield has joined Stephanie McKenzie in the sprint section, while Rushlee Buchanan -- "a real buzzy character" -- is back after time on the road in the United States and Racquel Sheath, second in the omnium at the Oceania champs and a bright young prospect, add substance to the programme.
"Racquel brings a new dynamic. She's a good racer, has a good tactical brain."
For now it's all about securing qualifying points to give the selectors as many options as possible when decision time for Rio arrives.
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Track squad
For the World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico from November 7-9:
Men's endurance: Aaron Gate (Auckland), Marc Ryan (Timaru), Westley Gough (Waipukurau), Cam Karwowski and Pieter Bulling (both Invercargill).
Men's sprint: Eddie Dawkins and Matt Archibald (both Invercargill), Ethan Mitchell and Sam Webster (both Auckland).
Women's endurance: Lauren Ellis (Hinds), Jaime Nielsen (Cambridge), Georgia Williams (Auckland), Rushlee Buchanan and Racquel Sheath (both Te Awamutu)
Women's sprint: Stephanie McKenzie (Invercargill), Katie Schofield (Dunedin).
By David Leggat of the New Zealand Herald
