Sutton’s Jo Rowsell insists her days of walking into the British cycling team are well and truly over following a year of comings and goings in the sport.

The 21-year-old pursuiter witnessed a wind of change sweep through cycling last October when the IOC and UCI opted to reassess the gender balance within the Olympic events.

Rowsell has been on the end of both good news and bad news as a result with the women’s individual pursuit dropped but the team pursuit installed.

The former Nonsuch High School pupil has a proven team pursuit track record having claimed gold twice as well as silver since its introduction to the World Championships in 2008.

And with the team pursuit the only event now open to endurance cyclists Rowsell admits she has seen a spike in the amount of British girls interested in the three coveted places.

“Originally it was myself, Wendy Houvenaghel and Rebecca Romero in the team pursuit but Lizzie Armitstead has come in and really booked herself a place,” said Rowsell.

“This year was the first time we have had five riders competing for three places. The event has definitely moved on, it is hard for those who miss out, but great in long run because we know whoever is at an Olympics or World Championships is the best in Britain.

“And I think the more we can get up to that level the better the national team will be and in turn the more those on the fringe will improve.

“As a team we have worked hard at getting our pace right and we know that little things can make a big difference to our times.”

Rowsell was bidding to claim a third straight team pursuit world title in Copenhagen last week but fell to a ruthless Australian trio in the gold medal ride off.

The Sutton cyclist, alongside Houvenaghel and Armitstead, had her heart set on gold and Rowsell insists any changes set to be made following their performance will be far from wholesale.

“The team pursuit has become of more importance since the changes to the Olympic programme were announced,” she added.

“That has made us change most of our programme, we work on an Olympic programme and training around the Olympics and the individual pursuit is now something to do off the back of the team pursuit.

“We have decided to focus on the team pursuit and that has really brought us together. I think we have to do that because other countries will look at the changes and want to do as well as us.

“There has been a whole shift in our programme and we have spent a lot of time really getting to know each other so no other country gets in between us.”

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