Cycling: Cooke leads British challenge

The Welsh 22-year-old cycling phenomenon Nicole Cooke leads the charge in the women's road-race this morning. Already four times a world champion as a junior, the rider from Cowbridge has shown signs of strong form by scalping wins in stages of her last two racesagainst rivals she will be facing today.

This afternoon's event, the under-23 men's road-race, could be fertile terrain for Mark Cavendish, who put in a strong performance in the recent Tour of Britain.

Tomorrow, the 273 kilometre senior men's road-race will see the country's top one-day specialist Roger Hammond compete at the World Championships for the first time since 1998.

With a start-list including some of cycling's biggest names such as Italian Alessandro Petacchi, Belgian Tom Boonen, Australian Robbie McEwen and Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov, Hammond stated: "I'm not a favourite; if I'm lucky and I'm on a good day I could have a chance."

He will be supported by five other British riders, the highest number Great Britain has fielded for a men's World Championships road-race in more than a decade.

* Irishman Pat McQuaid was elected as the new president of cycling's governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) yesterday. McQuaid's most pressing task in his four-year term of office is to resolve the conflict over the sport's new top league, the ProTour.