Birmingham 2022 Track Cycling: Day 1 Australian preview

Our Birmingham 2022 cycling campaign is just under an hour away from hitting the track in London!

Australia has a famous history in the velodrome at the Commonwealth Games since 1934, winning 189 medals, the most by any nation, of which 90 have been gold.

Over the next four days, you will see 20 track events contested on the Birmingham 2022 program, 10 each for the men and women, and four for para-cycling.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of Day 1 at Lee Valley VeloPark.

Women’s Tandem B – Sprint

Jessica Gallagher and Caitlin Ward (pilot) get the show rolling with Women’s Tandem B Sprint qualifying at 7:02pm AEST.

Qualifying for sprint events is an all-out rolling start 200-metre effort, known as a flying 200m, and determines seeding for sprint matchups. Remember this because you’ll see it all again on Days 2 and 3 for the men and women.

After nearly three years away from the sport, Gallagher returned to the track earlier this year hunting a Commonwealth Games qualifying time at the 2022 AusCycling Track National Championships with the assistance of former Australian Cycling Team sprinter Caitlin Ward.

The duo only began riding with each other this year and will have no doubt made mental and physical gains in recent months in the lead-up to the Games.

Gallagher finished second in the 2018 edition of Women’s Tandem B Sprint but was not awarded a medal due to the number of entrants.

Women’s Team Pursuit

The Australian women’s team pursuit squad start their quest for back-to-back gold medals at 7:14pm AEST.

The young squad of Chloe Moran, Sophie Edwards, Maeve Plouffe, Alyssa Polites and Georgia Baker are all debutants bar the latter.

Baker has only joined the group in the past fortnight after the Giro d’Italia Donne with UCI WorldTour outfit Team BikeExchange-Jayco, but most recently racing on the track at the first Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup in Glasgow, Scotland.

The debutant quartet have been a close-knit unit since the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, primarily training out of the Australian Cycling Team base in Adelaide before heading overseas in recent months for the second Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup in Milton, Canada, and a road racing block in Europe.

The same group won a silver medal in Milton, finishing with a time of 4:21.126 behind Italy.

The keys to success for the women’s team pursuit will be the performances of Plouffe and Baker, with both expected to pull big turns over the 4000m.

“We’ve got a young and exciting team, I’m super eager to get it going,” Baker said.

“We’ve got some big competition, but we know we focus well and control and execute what we can.

“We’re a versatile team with so many gifted riders who can work around a challenge – it's a united group.”

Men’s Team Pursuit

The young and exciting Australian men’s team pursuit squad are the next cab off the rank at 7:55pm AEST.

This group is determined, focussed and hellbent on continuing the gold medal lineage in this event, which stretches back to Delhi 2010.

The squad of five is Conor Leahy, James Moriarty, Josh Duffy, Lucas Plapp and Graeme Frislie.

All are Commonwealth Games debutants, with Luke Plapp the most experienced after winning Olympic bronze at Tokyo 2020.

Much like the women and Baker, Plapp has joined the squad only recently after an altitude camp with his UCI WorldTour team INEOS Grenadiers.

The core quartet has been together for more than a year now training in Adelaide and showed they mean business at the Milton UCI Track Nations Cup, winning gold ahead of Italy on that night.

“Qualifying is super important, if you’re not in the top four you’re out –we've got to give it everything in the first ride,” Leahy said.

“We’re all as good as we have ever been.

“We’re all best mates and we want to go out and race – we can’t wait.”

Women’s Team Sprint

Tonight at 8:42pm AEST will be the first Commonwealth Games Women’s Team Sprint contested by three women, up from two, a change officially ushered In after Tokyo 2020 by the UCI.

That shift changed the game of women’s sprinting overnight and all nations are tinkering with personnel and tactics.

Australia’s squad is led by Queensland’s newest queen of sprinting Kristina Clonan, who is joined by 19-year-old Alessia McCaig and 39-year-old Breanna Hargrave – one of the feel-good stories of the Australian team.

"I'm extremely excited to step out on the track tonight. This is what we have been working towards for a long time and race day is the icing on the cake," Hargrave said.

"The vibe is great between the girls, we have enjoyed working together over the last six weeks and are looking forward to putting it all together.

"To be donning the green and gold is an absolute dream come true.

"Ever since I can remember it has been my goal to represent my country in sport and I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity and hope I can make Australia proud."

Qualifying will be an absolute unknown in this one, with multiple nations all hovering around the same mark over the past year.

A medal here will be a major win for the trio.

Men’s Team Sprint

The big dogs of track come out to play at 9:16pm AEST.

Australia desperately wants gold back here in the Men’s Team Sprint after playing second fiddle to England and New Zealand at the last two editions of the Commonwealth Games.

The Australian trio of Leigh Hoffman, Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer know what they must do tonight to achieve that and 100 per cent have the power to do so.

Glaetzer has become a household name when a major Games rolls around and needs no introduction at his third Commonwealth Games, the man delivers when his name is called.

It’s the lesser-known Richardson that can really announce himself to the wider Australian public at Birmingham 2022.

The 23-year-old Western Australian has risen to the next level of performance in the aftermath of Tokyo 2020, winning medals for fun at the Glasgow and Milton UCI Track Nations Cup round earlier this year while placing himself in the conversation as one of the fastest sprinters in the world right now.

Fellow Commonwealth Games debutant Hoffman will lead the men out of the gate as the starter tonight.

The 23-year-old from Whyalla can really get the sprint train moving out of the gate with some violence and was part of the gold medal-winning team sprint squad with Richardson and Thomas Cornish, the fourth member of the Australian men’s team sprint squad here in Birmingham, at the Glasgow UCI Track Nations Cup.

How To Watch The Racing

In Australia, you can watch all the cycling from Birmingham 2022 on Seven and 7plus – live, free and in HD.

7plus will be showing up to 30 live and replay channels, so you can follow your favourite events and catch up on highlights. For streaming, visit the 7plus Commonwealth Games Hub. There are specific streaming pages for track cycling, mountain bike and road cycling.

AusCycling will post event previews and reports throughout the Games on our website.

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