Houvenaghel critical of Olympic schedule changes after romping to gold

By Steven Chicken, Sportsbeat, in Manchester

GREAT Britain's Wendy Houvenaghel hit out at the uncertainty over the Olympic cycling schedule after romping to individual pursuit gold at the UCI World Cup in Manchester.

TRAINING UNCERTAINTY: Wendy Houvenaghel wants the Olympic cycling schedule sorted out as soon as possible

The 34-year old claimed Olympic silver for the individual pursuit in Beijing last year and admitted she was desperate to upgrade to gold in London.

But proposed changes to the Olympic schedule would remove the event altogether, with the Brit having to focus on team pursuit instead.

And despite being team pursuit world champion with Lizzie Armitsead and Joanna Roswell, Houvenaghel was adamant she wouldn't be able to settle into a consistent training routine until the situation was resolved.

"It's quite devastating because the individual pursuit is something I've specialised in for the last three and a half years," said Houvenaghel. "I was very much looking forwards to continuing with it and taking it the whole way to London.

"The news of the proposed changes only broke a few weeks ago and my training schedule has been a bit up in the air until the proposals are ratified.

"I think the training and preparation for the individual pursuit is slightly different from the team pursuit.

"Both complement each other to an extent, but I feel like to get the most out of myself I need to focus on one of them - our coaching programme is being revised to reflect the changes to the event programme in London."

The result in Manchester never looked in doubt for the Brit who stretched a four second lead over Australia's Josephine Tomic at the 2000m mark before eventually finishing in 3.31.929 minutes.

Dutch rider Vera Koedooder came from behind to defeat Spain's Leire Olaberria Dorronsoro and claim bronze.

Meanwhile, there will be a British one-two in the men's sprint after Sir Chris Hoy and Matt Crampton booked their places in this evening's final.

Hoy barely broke sweat as he swept past Australia's Shane Perkins in two races, finishing in 10.313 seconds and 10.523 secs.

Manchester-based Crampton needed all three races against Olympic silver medallist Jason Kenny but came from behind in a dramatic decider to set-up a final clash with the Olympic champion.

Belgium's Kenny De Ketele and Tim Merthens took victory in the men's madison final, amassing 17 points and edging out German duo Roger Kluge and Robert Bartko by a solitary point.