Paralympic Champions, Darren Kenny, Sara Storey & Jody Cundy will contest the team sprint for GB at next month’s Para- Cycling World track championships.
The trio were picked after a series of trials at the Welsh National Cycling centre in Newport. Jon-Allan Butterworth and Mark Colbourne were the other riders in contention and Butterworth, especially, was unlucky to miss out.
The ex-RAF man who was injured in Iraq now has others in the squad looking over their shoulders as his rapid improvement continues. The sprint trials certainly added some “edge" but it was all in a day’s work for the Great Britain squad on their intensive track camp at the Newport Velodrome. The world championships are in Los Angeles but the London Paralympic games are on the horizon and media interest in the squad is intense. BBC Sport, BBC Wales, The Sunday Times, Reuters, The Press Association, Channel 5 & Cycling Weekly, among others, was all in attendance for a media day at the team’s hotel. Interviews, pieces to camera and photo calls are all part of the job.
After a morning on the road the riders were given an afternoon off but work was never far away. A team from the UK anti-doping agency turned up unannounced. Instead of putting their feet up the Para-Cycling squad spent three hours providing samples!
Even after 8 hard days on the track there was still time for a bit of fun, Barney Storey & Neil Fachie & Helen Scott & Aileen Mcglynn held an impromptu tandem match sprint competition.Storey & Faichie, rather ungentlemanly, won 2-0. The Championships in Los Angeles will run from the 9-12 February and the strong GB squad will fly out the week before. Last year in Montichiarri,Italy, GB topped the medal table with 17 medals including 13 gold.
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