Cycling: Archbold front runner in new rule track format

Shane Archbold. Photo / Gettty Images

Keeping friends close but your enemies closer will be top of mind for New Zealand's top men's track endurance cyclists when they embark on a five-day team pursuit camp in Aigle, Switzerland, this month.

Eleven athletes chosen by BikeNZ will be put through tests and technical training by head track coach Tim Carswell from June 22. They are Shane Archbold, Sam Bewley, Aaron Gate, Westley Gough, Cameron Kowalski, Peter Latham, Hayden Roulston, Mark Ryan, Tom Scully, Jesse Sergent and Myron Simpson. Only five will be selected to compete in the teams pursuit event at the London Olympics next year.

Bewley, who won bronze in the teams pursuit at Beijing and is now part of the RadioShack professional team in Europe, says the camp is the beginning of mates turning rivals until the final team selection.

"There is full-on competition, for sure. You've got to look after your own, this camp will drill that in. The get-together is an important time of the four-year cycle, finding out what the coaches want."

With none of the riders likely to be in Tour de France squads, BikeNZ high performance manager Mark Elliott says it is the perfect time to host it.

"It means our guys have some down-time with a lot of European national championships taking place as well. The parts of pro teams not involved in the Tour de France generally shut down."

The Kiwis are more thoroughly tested in international competition from November through to April and the 11 will be whittled down to the maximum of five riders who can be taken to the Olympics.

BikeNZ will send athletes to the Oceania Championships in November, followed by World Cups in Cali, Colombia (December), Beijing (January), London (February) and the world championships in Melbourne (April).

It is a step into the unknown after the 2009 rejig of the Olympic track programme. The individual pursuit, points race and Madison are gone as individual events. The former two are now part of the six-event omnium. The omnium, cycling's version of track and field's decathlon, also includes a flying lap against the clock, an elimination race, a scratch race and a 1km time trial. The Olympic omnium rider must come from the five-man team pursuit squad. It places Shane Archbold in a strong position.

The 22-year-old was ranked world No1 on points in the omnium last season and earned silver at the world championships. Archbold had further success late last month winning the overall sprinter's jersey on the Tour of Ireland. He is also unlikely to face competition from incumbent Olympic team pursuiters Roulston, Sergent and Bewley. They are likely to target the road race as their second Olympic event.