Four talented Southland cyclists are attempting to put their best foot forward for selection in the New Zealand team for future Junior World Track Cycling Championship events.Southland's Emma Cumming, Makayla Smith, Tom Sexton and Hamish Beadle are all in Cambridge this week as part of a New Zealand junior development squad.
They a spending some time on the track training and later in the week will compete in the UCI tier one event in Cambridge.
They then head to Adelaide in preparation for the the Oceania Track Cycling Championships which start on October 8 and run through to October 11.
The Southland quartet make up a large chunk of the 11-strong New Zealand junior development team. National coach Ross Machejefski said Southland had again done well to make up a bulk of the squad.
''Their skills are good because they have got an indoor track at home which is really good, they've done a lot of stuff already. Also with the coaches down there they are already at a high level.''
He said the current camp was an important step in the young cyclists' development.
''We are in the second day of camp now and at the end of the week there is three days racing with the tier one event here. We are using it as a bit of practice racing for the Oceanias,'' he said.
''The really good thing about them being here is this afternoon we are training on the track with the elites. We are training with Matt [Archibald] and Eddie [Dawkins] in the same session, so that's pretty cool.''
Machejefski said they were eyeing the next few weeks as a development phase for potential representatives at future world junior championships.
''This is a real introductory, there's lots of skills on and off the bike. We've got lots of workshops and we are trying to build a high performance culture into these kids.
"I guess it is a first step from a junior worlds perspective, it's the first time they get to come into camp and experience a whole heap of these types of workshops.''
VITAL PREPARATION: Southland junior track cyclists, from left, Makayla Smith, Emma Cumming, Tom Sexton and Hamish Beadle are in Cambridge this week as part of the New Zealand junior squad preparing for the Oceania Championships in Adelaide.