By Jennifer Lukas
CTVOlympics.ca Staff
On paper, the UCI Track Cycling World Cup running in London from February 16-19 appears to be just another in a long series of stepping stones for Olympic qualification. Few would call the event "crucial" but for elite competitors, the opportunity this official Olympic test event affords is not to be missed. This is why the world's top sprint and endurance cyclists have signed up in droves.
In some sports, Olympic venues are little more than circumstantial; however for track cycling, its venue is the star of its show.
Located in London's Olympic Park, the Velodrome should be one of the brightest spots of the Games. Housing a 250-metre Siberian pine track, the curving cedar wood structure has been compared to Vancouver's wood-framed jewel of the 2010 Olympics: long-track speed skating's Richmond Olympic Oval.
The London Olympic Organizing Committee (LOCOG) says its cycling track is set to be "the fastest in the world." Sir Chris Hoy, a Scottish cyclist with so many Olympic titles -- four, including three from Beijing in 2008 -- that he was knighted for his contribution to British sport, lent his expertise to the venue's design. In addition, the British Cycling performance director feels that the track is special enough that he'd rather keep international athletes off it. Period.
"I'm a little bit miffed, if I'm honest, if I'm really, really honest," Dave Brailsford told the BBC last month.
"To have a fully-blown World Cup as a test event when a lot of the other venues are using national championships -- we're basically inviting the rest of the world in, and the opposition in. Let's have a look at what the track is like and the nuances of how the track runs and the differences between the London track and any other track."
One of those nuances will be the "gladiator-like" atmosphere LOCOG says it hopes to provide. Early press releases explained that rows of seats extend all around the track in an effort to create a "wall of sound" of support for British athletes. The sold-out test event should give a pretty good indication of what to expect come Games time.
Canadian competitors like Tara Whitten and Zach Bell, both Olympic gold medal hopefuls in women's and men's omnium, respectively, will have to either fight against the noise or learn to use it as fuel.
Other Canadian entries in the test event include Hugo Barette, Stephane Cossette, Cam MacKinnon, Scott Mulder, Laura Brown, Gillian Carleton, Jasmin Glaesser, Stephanie Roorda and Monique Sullivan.
Top international athletes are also scheduled to attend, including the aforementioned Hoy as well as Great Britain's Victoria Pendleton. Australia is sending world and Olympic record holder Anna Meares and a men's pursuit squad that has not raced together since they rode to gold at the 2011 World Championships. Sarah Hammer headlines for Team USA.
Nations have until April 8th to accrue points in a series of track cycling races. After that date, top ranked nations will receive qualification spots for the London 2012 Olympics. The London test event is the final in a series of World Cup events leading up to the world championships in early April.
Jennifer Lukas is a lead digital sports producer for CTVOlympics.ca. She will be in London this week, reporting on the UCI Track Cycling World Cup and Olympic test event from the Velodrome. Follow her updates on Twitter at @JenniferLukas and join in the conversation at @CTVOlympics.