The 32 member team was announced at the conclusion of the 2008 Victorian Track Championships held at the Darebin International Sports Centre at the weekend.

The Elite field will be headlined by former Pursuit World Champion Katie Mactier (Carnegie-Caulfield CC), sprint stars Mark French (St Kilda CC) & Shane Perkins (Carnegie-Caulfield CC), multiple former World Champion Shane Kelly (Stawell Great Western CC), 2007 Junior Track World Champions Glenn O'Shea (Bendigo & District CC) & Leigh Howard, Commonwealth Games Points gold medallist Sean Finning (Castlemaine  CC) and rising star Tess Downing (Carnegie-Caulfield CC).

The Under 19 team features some of the most exciting young cyclists in Australia in Trevor Griffiths (Shepparton CC), Ben Sanders (Carnegie-Caulfield CC), Jamie Crass (Bendigo & District CC) and Toby Dite (Hawthorn CC), whilst the Junior women's field will be lead by multiple Victorian champions Laine Hammond (Northcote CC) and Carly McCoombe (Bendigo & District CC) .

At the 2007 National Championships also held in Sydney, Victoria won 36 Medals including 16 gold. They also claimed most of the silverware including The Robina Joy Trophy - the best performed state in the Elite Men’s events, The Southcott Cup - for winning the Open Teams Pursuit, The Bill Young Trophy - for winning the Men Under 19 Teams Pursuit.

Leigh Howard received the ultimate accolade by being crowned the Champion of Champions at the Championships after winning 5 Gold medals and Michael Gallagher was awarded the “AWD Ride of the Series” for his outstanding ride in the LC 1 4000mt Individual Pursuit shattering his previous World Record with a time of 4.40.378.

Team Manager Ian Maher believes that if the high quality racing seen at the recent Victorian Track Championships is anything to go by, the Sydney crowd will be in for a treat when the Victorian's hit the Dunc Grey boards.

"This is a very strong team we have picked for the nationals and I expect it to be as good as, if not better than our strong performance last year," Maher stated.

The team will finalise its preparations with training sessions at the indoor velodrome at DISC in Thornbury before heading to Sydney in approximately 2 weeks. 

For more information, please contact Team Manager Ian Maher on 03 8480 3000.

2008 Official Team

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