British cycling fans will be expecting great things from Victoria Pendleton when international world cup track racing returns to Manchester. The former world women s sprint champion from Stotfold has been preparing for the UCI Track Cycling World Cup seri

British cycling fans will be expecting great things from Victoria Pendleton when international world cup track racing returns to Manchester.

The former world women's sprint champion from Stotfold has been preparing for the UCI Track Cycling World Cup series which culminates in the final round at the Manchester velodrome (February 23-25, 2007) where she made her international debut in 2002.

She could also feature in the brand new women's two-man team sprint event which appears on the event schedule for the first time.

The cream of international track cycling will have already been to Sydney, Moscow and Los Angeles before the crucial final round of the track world cup takes place in England only a few weeks before the world championships in Palma, Mallorca.

Pendleton's performances on the track at world level have been steadily improving over the past five years.

"I have been to five world championships and I have been in the top four in the last four and top two in the last two," she said.

"I am expecting to ride the sprint, 500m time trial and Keirin at the world cup events and maybe the team sprint if they can find me a partner.

"There are a few girls training at the BC academy at the moment and we could ride team sprint as well depending on how they are going. That would be wicked."

Anna Blyth would be one of the main contenders to ride the team event with Pendleton.

"I am not sure who would ride the anchor leg," continued Pendleton.

"Anna has quite a long sprint as well and we are both pretty strong on the second lap.

"We could probably both do both positions and it would be interesting to see how it works out after a few trials when we see how we are going together.

"We haven't done any specific training for it yet but I don't think it would take much to put it together."

Pendleton added: "My training has really gone well this year.

"I have put a lot of work in at the gym and on the road so I have got some nice base work in.

"I am looking forward to getting some race specific training in before the Sydney event."

The 26-year-old was pipped to the sprint gold at Bordeaux earlier this year by Natallia Tsylinskaya.

So Pendleton will be out for revenge over the Belarusian in front of a home crowd in Manchester.

"It would be very, very nice," continued the local girl.

"Obviously it would be more important to beat her in Palma and win the stripy jersey.

"She is very strong and experienced but I know what I have to do to beat her and fingers crossed that I can get it right on the day."

Tickets for the Manchester round are on sale from Ticketmaster or a link from www.worldtrackcycling.com will take you straight to the specific Ticketmaster booking page.