Beijing track World Cup moved up one week

The UCI announced today it has moved the date of the Beijing Track World Cup, which was originally scheduled to be held on January 20-22, 2012 in Beijing, to a date one week earlier "due to organisational reasons".

The third round of the World Cup will now take place on January 13-15 in Beijing's Olympic velodrome.

The World Cup series is set to visit Kazakhstan for the first time when the opening round of the 2011-2012 series takes place in the capital, Astana on November 4-6.

Races to be held include the Olympic programme (team sprint, team pursuit, omnium, individual sprint and keirin) as well as the individual pursuit, scratch race and Madison for men and a points race and 500m time trial for women.

At least 22 professional track teams and 43 national teams making up a start list estimated at 450 riders are expected to compete at the new velodrome. One of the newest teams will be the Astana Track Team, which along with the Kazakhstan national team will represent the home country.