The Battle of the Brads
Bradley Wiggins seen here at Revolution 14
Entries
for the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Manchester 23rd -25th
February have served up some very tasty items on the menu for fans at the
Velodrome in Sport City and non more mouth-watering than the clash of Bradley
McGee and Bradley Wiggins in Friday’s
men’s 4,000m individual pursuit.
Olympic
team pursuit champion McGee will be hoping for an early celebration on Friday night by winning the event on
the day before his 31st birthday on Saturday. Sydney’s
McGee was part of the world record breaking Aussie quartet that won the gold
medal in the Athens Olympics leaving Great Britain with the
consolation silver.
McGee
is a world class act having led all three ‘grand tours’, taken stage victories
in the Tour de France and Giro D’Italia and has been Commonwealth, World and
Olympic champion.
Wiggins
rides the event as the current Olympic individual pursuit champion. He was also
the first Briton in over 40 years to win three medals at the same games. The
Cofidis professional has already targeted victory on British soil in the Tour
De France prologue this year and victory in Manchester would certainly show that he can
produce form when he needs it for key events.
Wiggins
has been training in Manchester and Newport and feels that
his preparation is going well. “I think once you come here on race day and you
have someone on the other side of the track and the crowd behind you, that
everything will come together", Wiggins told British Cycling: “I have put
a lot of emphasis on doing this round of the World Track Cup because I can see
it is such a big event. I was commentating on it last year and I was sitting
there wishing I was riding. So I am looking forward to it being as big as it
was last time."
The
men’s individual pursuit starts with qualifying on the afternoon of Friday 23rd February with
the head to head medal rides in the evening. Chris Hoy will also be in
action for Great Britain
on Friday night in the men’s kilometre time trial.
Tickets
are still available for the event. Full details can be found on www.worldtrackcycling.com
which includes a link directly to the Ticketmaster event page or you can call
the dedicated ticket hotline on 0871
2302621.
