Rio Olympic Games Archives

Joanna Rowsell Wins Individual Pursuit

Mark Cavendish and Joanna Rowsell have been amongst six GB riders competing in Ghent at the International Belgian Open attempting to earn qualification for 2013/14 UCI Track Cycling World Cup series. Making her return to competition earlier than expected after a fractured collarbone suffered at last month�s RideLondon, Olympic track champion Joanna Rowsell won the Pursuit event with fellow Brit Katie Archibald taking second. Writing on her blog Rowsell said: �Going into the event I knew I wouldn�t be at my best, but it was about getting some points and hopefully going home job done� By the end of all the heats I was surprised and really happy to win by nearly 6 seconds! I couldn�t have asked for a better comeback and this has given me a lot of confidence going into the winter track season.�

As part of his return to track Cavendish took second in the 15km Scratch event and finished third in Saturday’s Madison all part of his campaign for qualifying World Cup points with a view to both the World Championships and onwards to the Rio Olympics.

Plans would seem to be afoot to introduce three additional cycling events for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The International Cycling Union (UCI) are to put forward a proposal for the return of track points races and extensions to both the BMX and Mountain Bike events; meeting on Saturday (February 2) in Louisville, USA, ahead of the Cyclo-Cross World Championships they issued a statement that read �With regards to the 2016 Olympic Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro (BRA), the Management Committee expressed its support for a proposal to be made to the International Olympic Committee for the addition to the cycling programme of a points race and BMX Freestyle and Mountain Bike Eliminator events for both men and women.�

It is possible that the changes could also see the removal of the multi-stage Omnium (an event in which GB�s Laura Trott won Gold in London) from the next Games. These are early days and early proposals and shake-ups between Olympics are frequent across all sports, but given the huge success of Team GB in 2012 it will be interesting to see how things pan out in the next three years. Cyclo, of course, will keep you posted with all the latest developments.