Cycling-Britain under pressure in Berlin as Olympics looms

The Tokyo Olympics is five months away but the battle for track cycling supremacy begins in earnest in Berlin on Wednesday with the world championships offering riders a final chance to impress their selectors and rattle their rivals.

Twenty titles in 10 disciplines are at stake this week, and nowhere will the intrigue be greater than in the blue-riband team pursuits in which Britain has swept all five gold medals in the last three Olympics. At last year's world championships in Poland, Britain were eclipsed by Australia in the men's and women's and while, as is usually the case at a pre-Olympics worlds, their new 'kit' remains under wraps, it's a chance to land psychological blows.

Five nations, but not Britain, have gone sub 3 minutes 50 seconds in men's TP this year, so the gauntlet has most definitely been thrown down to the Olympic champions for whom only veteran Ed Clancy remains from the quartet that twice broke the world record on the way to gold in Rio. The 34-year-old Clancy, set to retire after Tokyo, won his first team pursuit world title in 2005 and will be going for his sixth in Berlin. But he knows the bar has never been higher.

"The competition is red hot," said Clancy, the father figure in a pursuit squad featuring young powerhouse Ethan Hayter, converted sprinter Kian Emadi, Ollie Wood and Charlie Tanfield. "The reality is, right now, this could be a tricky world championships for us. But the dream is to win (a fourth Olympic gold) in Tokyo."

Australia have set the standard in team pursuit since Rio, setting the world record of 3:48.01 at last year's worlds when Britain managed only one gold from the entire championships. Laura Trott's absence from Britain's team pursuit lineup in Berlin, a result of a broken shoulder sustained last month at a World Cup race in Canada, means Australia and the U.S are favourites for women's gold in Berlin's velodrome, built for the city's unsuccessful bid to host the 2000 Olympics.

The 27-year-old Trott, who with husband Jason Kenny form cycling's golden couple with 10 Olympic titles between them, will test her shoulder in the omnium where defending champion Dutchwoman Kirsten Wild, 37, will provide the benchmark. Italy's men's Olympic champion Elia Viviani has taken time out from the road to add his name to a high-quality cast in the German capital where he will go in the omnium.

American Chloe Dygert, who roared to the road time trial title in Harrogate last year, will power her nations team pursuit quartet, while Hong Kong's Sara Lee aims to defend her keirin and individual sprint titles. Jason Kenny's focus will be fixed on adding to his six Olympic titles in Tokyo and surpassing Chris Hoy's haul.

But with Phil Hindes and Ryan Owens he will target an opening day gold for Britain in the team sprint. Australia won a joint-best six golds with the Netherlands last year, but former sprint champion Matthew Glaetzer and team pursuit cog Kelland O'Brien are both injured.

Hoy believes the medal-table will have a more balanced look this time. "It's the first time in recent history where the medal chances are spread across many nations," he told the BBC. "But I think the rest might be nervous looking at GB even though they haven't dominated over the past three or four years.

"They're like a sleeping giant." The ambassador for the week will be Germany's reigning Olympic sprint champion Kristina Vogel, who was paralysed in a training crash in June 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)