CYCLIST Glenn O’Shea continues to impress in his quest for a spot in the Australian team for this year’s World Championships and London Olympic Games.
The former Eaglehawk cyclist now lives in Adelaide and at the weekend he was part of the South Australian team which broke the record for the fastest 4km team pursuit to be ridden in Australia.
Competing at the 2012 Cycling Australia Track National Championships at the Adelaide Super-Drome, O’Shea partnered Jack Bobridge, Rohan Dennis and Alexander Edmondson to blitz the magical four-minute mark in the team pursuit.
Their time of 3:56:834 broke the previous mark by 79 thousands-of-a-second and was little more than a second outside the Australian record.
Racing against Queensland in the final, O’Shea and his team-mates overtook their opponents five laps from the finish.
Albeit under different conditions, the quartet’s time was faster than that ridden by the team representing Australia – which included Bobridge – that won the 2011 world title in the Netherlands.
O’Shea, 22, said his team was disappointed with its qualifying time of 4:02:507 – still the fastest qualifying time – and set itself for a big final.
“With the team we had we sort of had a good feeling we’d go fairly fast,” O’Shea said.
“To be able to do it at the Australian championships is pretty good.”
O’Shea also raced in the 40km points race at the championships and finished eighth, while team-mate Bobridge took the honours.
“I didn’t probably have the legs in the end, it was good that I could do a bit of work for Jack so he could win,” O’Shea said.
A national champion in track races ranging from madison to points score to omnium, O’Shea has been in sensational form recently taking out the men’s omnium at the track cycling World Cup meet in Beijing in mid-January.
He is leaving no stone unturned in his bid for the Australian Cyclones team for the World Championships in Melbourne from April 4-8 and the Olympics beginning July 27.
A two-time winner of the Bendigo Advertiser-WIN Television Sports Star of the Year award, O’Shea was told he needed to ride world-class times in Beijing and at the Australian omnium titles. He won both events.
“I’ve ticked all the boxes,” O’Shea said.
“I’m in a training camp now for the London World Cup in a couple of weeks’ time, there’s not a heap of pressure on me (to be selected for that). I do want to go and make the team, we’ll just see.”
There are just five places available in the track endurance squad for the Olympics and the team won’t be known until after the World Championships.
“It could be as late as June,” O’Shea said. “It’s pretty cut-throat, it’s sort of hard to say (whether I’ll be picked).”
But O’Shea still hopes he can return to his hometown for the Bendigo International Madison in March.
He said it would depend on his schedule whether he would be able to race at the Tom Flood Sports Centre.
“I’m looking pretty good to race (at the Madison), hopefully there’ll be a bit of leeway there for that,” he said.
Imogen Jelbart was the other Bendigo cyclist competing at the national track championships.
The rising star produced her best result in the under-19 women’s 20km points race final where she came 4th with nine points – just two points from third place.
The Bendigo cyclist helped set the pace for much of the race, but Queensland’s Taylah Jennings dominated the field and finished with 31 points.
Jelbart partnered with Caitlin Ward in the open women’s team sprint over two laps and finished sixth.
She was 12th in the under-19 2000m individual pursuit and 14th in the under-19 7.5kmn scratch race final.
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