Best of British track stars kick-off Olympic Qualification at UEC European Track Championships
British Cycling has announced the star-studded line-up that will head to Grenchen, Switzerland, to represent the Great Britain Cycling Team at the UEC European Track Championships from February 8-12.
The squad heads to Grenchen in fine form for the first event of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games qualification period, with 14 of the riders seeing out the 2022 season with medals at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Paris.
The men’s endurance squad will be led by Dan Bigham, Ethan Vernon and Ollie Wood, in their first international track event since spectacularly taking the team pursuit world title in October.
Charlie Tanfield will also return to the boards after illness and Will Perrett will compete in his first major event as a full-time GBCT rider. Fred Wright makes his senior European Championships debut for the GBCT, after a breakthrough season on the road in 2022.
Ethan Hayter was scheduled to compete but due to injury, Will Tidball will be stepping in to complete the men’s endurance squad.
Following their impressive silver medal at the 2022 world championships, the team pursuit quartet of Katie Archibald, Josie Knight, Anna Morris and Neah Evans will represent the women’s endurance squad. Elinor Barker also joins up with the team for her first major track event since giving birth to her son in March 2022, while senior academy rider Ella Barnwell steps up to complete the team.
After taking an impressive clean sweep of four national sprint titles last weekend, Emma Finucane will return to the track alongside her world championships bronze medal-winning teammates Lauren Bell and Sophie Capewell to contest the women’s sprint events. They will be joined by Olympic bronze medalist Katy Marchant, who also makes her return to international competition after giving birth to her son in June last year.
In the men’s events, Joe Truman will rejoin his world championships team sprint bronze medal-winning teammates, Jack Carlin, Ali Fielding and Hamish Turnbull, in his first major event since injury at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Great Britain Cycling Team Performance Director, Stephen Park CBE, said: “Building on some brilliant results at worlds, we’re now welcoming even more incredibly strong riders to the squad, highlighting the depth of talent and competition for places in the squad. It’s great to see some riders back on the track after illness or injury and in the case of Elinor Barker and Katy Marchant, this is the first opportunity to see them competing on the international stage since giving birth, so it’s a pleasure to welcome them back.
“This event marks the start of the Olympic qualification period. We ended 2022 with a number of the riders heading out to Grenchen winning world championship medals, so I hope those impressive results give them confidence as we start the 2023 track season and start our campaign to Paris 2024.”
Great Britain Cycling Team squad for the UEC European Track Championships:
Men’s Endurance
Dan Bigham
Will Perrett
Charlie Tanfield
Will Tidball
Ethan Vernon
Ollie Wood
Fred Wright
Women’s endurance
Katie Archibald
Elinor Barker
Ella Barnwell
Neah Evans
Josie Knight
Anna Morris
Women’s sprint
Lauren Bell
Sophie Capewell
Emma Finucane
Katy Marchant
Men’s sprint Jack Carlin
Ali Fielding
Joe Truman
Hamish Turnbull
Header image: Emma Finucane after winning four gold medals in the Women’s Sprint, Keirin, 500m Time Trial and Team Sprint events. Credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com