Hayles left off British track squad

Robert Hayles (Halfords / Bike Hut)

Robert Hayles (Halfords / Bike Hut) (Image credit: Gerry McManus)

Last year's dominant team, Great Britain, will wait until Monday to announce the final list of riders, but already Rob Hayles has announced that he has not been selected and has chosen to retire from track cycling.

The British road champion was hoping to have a shot at the Omnium event and in the Madison, in which he and Peter Kennaugh took gold in the Beijing World Cup in January. "It goes without saying I was gutted. I've already said I felt I'd done enough in Beijing to deserve a place in the Madison but they [British Cycling] want to go in a different direction," he told Cycling Weekly.

Last year, Hayles was ejected from the world championships after registering a too-high hematocrit reading in pre-race testing.

Hayles will focus his attention on his road season with the Halfords BikeHut team.

The British are already lacking Chris Hoy, who was injured in a crash in Copenhagen and will not compete. Also missing will be Olympic gold medalist Rebecca Romero, leaving the team to rely on its younger members to duplicate last year's stunning results.

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