Australian track coach keen to see a fight

Australia's national track cycling manager Martin Barras is using the example set by Stuart O'Grady at a previous Olympic Games as a benchmark of how his team should approach the upcoming Commonwealth Games. However, it's not the Madison that he's referring to, where he won gold with team-mate Graeme Brown in Athens - it was the Olympic points race from the Sydney Games, which saw the freckled South Australian finish tenth.

"He didn't actually end up winning a medal, but he was the talk of the crowd because he went out there and fought and fought and fought and fought," Barras told the Adelaide Advertiser. "And that's exactly what you can expect from this team... I'm looking forward to seeing them fight."

Barras' hopes in Melbourne are buoyed by two star pupils hitting top form just at the right time - after experimenting with a larger gear, world individual pursuit champion Katie Mactier rode a very fast time trial two days ago, while dual Olympic champion Ryan Bayley says he recently clocked a personal best time in training. "I've done a lot of fast times in training," said Bayley. "Racing-wise, my head comes good when my legs come good."