Jason Kenny insists Great Britain’s team sprint squad are determined to be breathing right down the necks of the leading riders at next week’s Track Cycling World Championships in Paris.
Not since 2005 have Great Britain won gold in the team sprint on the world stage – Jamie Staff, Chris Hoy and Jason Queally taking the honours in Los Angeles – while the team has not graced the podium since 2011 in Apeldoorn.
Last November however Britain’s riders ended a four-year wait for a men’s team sprint victory in the UCI Track Cycling World Cup with Kenny, Philip Hindes and Callum Skinner beating Germany to gold in Mexico.
And Kenny, who already has two team sprint Olympic titles to his name from Beijing 2008 and London 2012, believes the current team has the potential to be up there with the best when the qualifying gets underway at The Velodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines on Wednesday.
“We weren't the fastest team there (in Mexico) and we know that. Although we won the event it was due to other teams kind of falling to bits,” Kenny told British Cycling.
“A few years ago we won an event and we said the same thing there, and it was Dave Brailsford that said 'you didn't win because they fell to bits, you pushed them and they cracked'.
“We need to be there and right behind them, and they need to know, everyone else in the world needs to know, the Germans - who have probably got the fastest team - need to know, that if they get it wrong we will be there picking up the pieces.
“If we get the most out of ourselves we are going to be there or thereabouts, and we should be in with a shout of a medal for sure.”
The 26-year-old is certainly no stranger to the World Championship stage, with six medals to his name, and two golds coming in the individual sprint in 2011 and 2013.
He will be riding in the individual sprint and keirin as well as the team sprint at the five-day Championships next week and the two-time Olympian admits he is hungry to expand his gold medal collection.
“I would like to win more world titles,” Kenny added.
“I've got a lot of medals but not a lot of them are gold at a world championships. I've only got two golds so it would be nice to kind of stick a few more in there.”
© Sportsbeat 2015