November 29, 2007 (Sydney Australia) — The largest field ever assembled at a track world cup is set to take to the boards tomorrow as 395 riders seek to secure their positions at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Since riders that arrive at the first two world cup rounds on form can seal their Olympic berths over the next three weeks, the field is also one of the deepest in recent memory with no less than 15 world champions present.

Seven Canadian will compete in the event, and several have been in Australia preparing for several weeks now, including Zach Bell and Gina Grain. Bell is looking to improve on his stellar season last year and improve on last years top ten results.

Grain will be hoping to have a good ride to begin her road to Beijing, and will be joined by veteran Mandy Poitras. Poitras is returning from a lengthy chronic fatigue type illness and has been showing off her traded mark speed for some weeks at the Burnaby Velodrome. They are joined by national pursuit champion Tara Whitten who will be riding at her first world cup.

The Madison team of Martin Gilbert and Ryan Mckenzie is also in attendance, though recently Gilbert teamed up with Bell at both the Oceanic Championships and the Revolution events. This has led to some speculation that they will ride the world cup together, a rumour that we are trying to find a concrete answer to.

Canada’s top track performer in recent years, Travis Smith, is back from a horrifying crash at last year’s Track World Championships, and will be racing with the National Team rather than his trade team Momentum.

World Cup Notes:
– The trade team structure has certainly opened up the fields with some nations (such as Australia) essentially fielding trade teams as extensions of their national teams while others are track versions of existing road teams (Drapac-Porsche and Verducci Breakaway)
– The Burnaby Velodrome is well represented at the event, along with Grain, Poitras and Bell, track regulars Kenny Williams (Cody Racing), Kele Murdin (Proman) and Iona Winter-Parks (Jamaica) are all competing