Paris Olympics track prep lands in Belgium

Preparations for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are heating up in Europe for the ARA Australian Cycling Team track endurance squad.

While pre-Olympics training camps in Spain are ongoing, four of the freshly announced team for Paris travelled to Belgium last week for the UCI C1 International Belgian Track Meeting at the Eddy Merckx Flemish Cycling Centre in Ghent thanks to support from Commonwealth Games Australia's Green2Gold2Great funding.

Alex Manly was the first of the quartet to hit the boards in Ghent, finishing ninth in the scratch race and seventh in the points race on the first of three race days.

Kell O'Brien and Sam Welsford reunited in the Madison for the first time since the 2022 UCI Track World Championships later that night, finishing sixth.

Georgia Baker took on a stacked omnium field on the second day and started strongly with second-place finishes in the scratch race and tempo race.

The Tasmanian entered the deciding points race in third after finishing fifth in the elimination race, but would slide back to fifth overall.

Baker and Manly linked up in the Madison on the final day and logged a third-place result.

International Belgian Track Meeting results

Feature picture: Marc Bouwens