TASMANIAN cyclists Georgia Baker and Amy Cure will take a step closer to selection in the Australian team for the Olympic Games in Rio when they compete in a World Cup round in New Zealand next week.
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Baker and Cure were named in Australia's 20-member team for the World Cup to be held in Cambridge on December 4-6.
Baker and Cure are recognised as two of Australia's finest endurance riders and will make up part of the women's team pursuit for Cambridge with a possible view to their selection for Rio.
Baker, 21, said she was excited about competing at Cambridge for the first time.
"New Zealand is the round of the World Cup that I've really been targeting and Australia is putting a lot of emphasis on it," she said.
Baker has enjoyed a highly successful road season, with wins in the Tour of the Goldfields, Amy's Otway Tour and the Tour of the King Valley and now gets her turn to excel on the track.
She is the reigning national team pursuit champion, along with Tasmanian teammates Amy Cure, Macy Stewart and Lauren Perry.
She also took home gold in the individual pursuit and omnium from the Oceania Championships in October.
The round of the World Cup will mean Baker misses the Stan Siejka Classic to be held in Launceston on December 6 but it is the start of a busy track campaign for her.
"After Cambridge, it will be back to Adelaide for the omnium nationals and then to Melbourne for the national madison title and then home for Christmas and a couple of the major carnivals, possibly Latrobe and Launceston," she said.
Cure, 23, has been riding with the Lotto-Soudal team in Belgium and will now concentrate on gaining selection for Rio.
She was with the Australian team at the London Olympics but was a reserve for the teams pursuit and didn't get to ride.
Since then she has won the world teams pursuit championship in France and been a regular in Australian teams for the World Cup events, specialising in pursuit and points races.
The World Cup series features the world's best track cyclists competing across three rounds for points towards the world championships and Olympic Games qualification.
Cali, in Colombia, hosted the first round of the series last month and, after Cambridge, the final round will be held in Hong Kong on January 16-17.
