Tomic leads London charge

And while there’s pressure on the seven women eligible for selection in Australia’s team pursuit squad, Tomic explained that the atmosphere is conducive to overcoming the hurdles en route to London qualification.

That qualification process started two weeks ago at the Astana round of the UCI Track World Cup, where the Australian trio failed to make it to the medal finals. Although with another round of the series approaching there’s a chance for the other four women in the group to make an impact in Cali, Colombia.

“For the Colombia World Cup it’ll be myself, Annette Edmondson, Mel Hoskins and Sarah Kent attending,” Tomic said.

"We came into the track program a little later this year due to a combination of road commitments or injury. Ash Akudinoff, Kate Bates and Amy Cure went to Astana for the first round of the World Cup and consequently they started to train a little earlier. That’s the core of seven women, which will be whittled down gradually until there are just four before the Olympics.

“[Australian women’s track endurance coach] Gary Sutton hasn’t given too much away and he doesn’t really know who the prime candidates are yet because it’s still early and so much can change between now and the Olympics.”

As the standard of the women’s team pursuit has been raised, the pressure has intensified on the Australian women to perform against an ever-deepening international field – it’s a different proposition to competing in the event when it was introduced just over two years ago.

“I remember two years ago, we’d go to a World Cup assured of getting into the finals for medals but at this last World Cup unfortunately we didn’t make it – that shows how the standard has been raised and we’re now the underdogs,” Tomic said.

“We have to stay on our toes and at the moment everyone is focused on working as a group rather than looking purely at who will be in the final four selected for London. Everyone gets along and we’re working well together – we’ve been split into two groups and there’s plenty of encouragement, which makes for a good environment.

“We’re taking a different group to every World Cup round and we should be solid in terms in qualification. The pressure is definitely on us and we need to lift.”

Tomic has been a mainstay of the Australian team since the inception of the event and has found a renewed vigour in her preparation late this year. She goes into the World Cup round in Cali fresh and confident that her and the rest of the Australian outfit can deliver a medal, despite the high altitude and setback suffered at the last round in Kazakhstan.

“We leave for the Colombia round of the Track World Cup in two weeks and so we’ve doing a lot of intensity,” she explained.

“Since coming home from Europe I’ve been in the gym and back on the track, just trying to find my track form. I’ve done a lot of base kilometres, which means I was road fit but it took some time to get speed back in my legs after some time away from the track.”

“Hopefully in Colombia we can get back in the medals and if everything goes well we could be in with a shot at the win. It’d boost our confidence as a group – since the Worlds, we could do with a good ride and an increase in confidence.”

As for London, Tomic sees the British continuing their strong form in the event but relishes the challenge as the underdog.

“The British team is definitely the favourite for the team pursuit but they have been the entire time the event has existed and we beat them at the 2010 World Championships when they were the favourites,” Tomic said.

“We’re used to being the underdog and I’m quite happy being in that position. But there are also the Kiwis, the Americans, Canadians, Dutch, Germans… And now even the Chinese have stepped up – they took second in the Astana World Cup round. Everyone’s stepping up and now it’s our turn to step up, too.”