British cycle stars bid for glory

Track cycling is one of the four sports in the Visa Paralympic World Cup with a high-class field expected.

In last year's event, British cyclists performed strongly at the Manchester Velodrome with Darren Kenny, Anthony Kappes and Aileen McGlynn among the winners.

The trio will be among those returning this year as part of their build-up to the World Championships in Switzerland in September.

There are also high hopes for Paralympic swimmer-turned-cyclist Sarah Bailey who has been a huge success since taking up the sport.

British Cycling's performance director Dave Mellor looks at the riders who will be hoping to fly the flag in Manchester.

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AILEEN MCGLYNN

Aileen and her pilot Ellen Hunter have benefited from a change in their coaching structure with Barney Storey taking over.

Hunter and McGlynn enjoyed gold medal success in Athens

The pair definitely have a chance of setting a world record in the 1km time trial. The thing that could work against them is that they have their two events - the sprint and the kilo - in a short space of time.

After their success in Athens, their times didn't improve too much last year but they are in good shape again.

At last year's European Championships, they were the only female sprint tandem team competing and there is a chance that the event may not be in the programme for Beijing so they could only have one chance of gold in 2008.

SARAH BAILEY

Since her switch to cycling from swimming, Sarah has made a big impact on the sport.

She is European champion and world record holder in the 3000m pursuit and she will be hoping to improve on that mark in Manchester, which is her home track.

Sarah set the world record after only training less than six month and since then she has progressed and gained more experience.

She beat her Chinese opponent Zufang Zhou in the pursuit at the European Championships but lost to her in the 500m time trial so it should be a good contest again.

DARREN KENNY

Of all of the British cyclists competing, Darren has one of the toughest schedules - the 3000m pursuit and the kilo as well as the team sprint.

Kenny smashed his own pursuit world record in Holland

He is back to full fitness after the calf muscle injury which he sustained at the European Championships.

Because of the schedule, I don't think he will be looking at improving his world records in the events this time although he is the strongest rider in the individual races.

Good performances will be the order of the day with the work being targeted towards the World Championships later this year.

He will also form an important part of the team sprint along with the likes of US-based Mark Bristow, Rik Waddon, Gary Williams and Jody Cundy.

ANTHONY KAPPES

Anthony was a complete novice at last year's event and came away with a world record in the tandem sprint event with Barney Storey.

Since then, he has had a year as a fully funded athlete and has moved on a great deal, helped by Barney's experience.

Kappes will be hoping to retain his sprint crown against the strong German Achim Moll

It is not out of the question that they could be close to a world record in the kilometre event, where they will face fellow Britons Ian Sharpe and Paul Hunter.