Australia's new breed of sprint cyclists will pit their skills against some seasoned campaigners in round two of the national track series at the Adelaide Super Dome tonight. Among those competing will be Sydney Olympic medallists Brett Aitken, Gary Neiwand and Sean Eadie. New South Wales leads the competition with 64 points after Thursday night's opening round in Perth, with Western Australia second on 35. For the first time, the event has been made part of the selection criteria for the national sprint squad.
Riders have to compete in at least three of the four rounds to be eligible. .
National sprint coach Gary West said the series was an ideal chance for cyclists to compete in some crucial racing. It does seem to be an ideal time to introduce some compulsory races as part of the selection criteria. A couple of years ago I was looking at the French model and I noticed that they also had a compulsory domestic track competition in France. The French recognised that there was not enough legitimate sprint racing in the world, so they made their own competition. I tried to look at that model and include some of those things.