Track Cycling Nations Cup: Meet New Zealand's young female pretenders eyeing Paris 2024

If you’re going to compete in your first-ever major international track cycling campaign, you may as well come away with three gold medals. Ally Woolaston did exactly that at the 2023 UCI Track Nations Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia, which took place 23-26 February.

At the first of three editions in the series – the second takes place from 14-17 March in Cairo, Egypt – the 22-year-old claimed the individual titles in the women's omnium and elimination race, plus the team pursuit alongside Michaela Drummond, Bryony Botha and Emily Shearman.

The Kiwi team also came away with second places in the men’s team pursuit and omnium races, and bronze in the men’s madison. The ranking points on offer at the Nations Cup enable qualification for the Track Cycling World Championship in Glasgow from 3-9 August, which in turn offers qualification for quota spots for nations at Paris 2024.

So, as Cairo welcomes the event for the first time, Olympics.com takes a look at some of the key female New Zealand cyclists competing in Egypt who may be vying for honours in France in 16 months’ time.

• How to qualify for Track Cycling at Paris 2024

Ally Woolaston

The world junior champion in individual pursuit in 2019 was the most decorated rider of the first round in Jakarta.

“Moments like this is why we do what we do," said post competition. "Celebrating 3 x golds at the first track campaign of the year with some of my best mates was a pretty unbeatable experience.”

The 22-year-old missed out on selection for Tokyo 2020 due to a crash weeks before the Games that resulted in a concussion, so a trip to Paris is very much the goal for the Tamahere native.

Based in the Netherlands during the season, Woolaston is a long way from home. However, having lived at boarding school from the age of 15, she is used to fending for herself. Woolaston’s Instagram feed is populated with posts of her and her teammates but she is equally happy in her own company, heading out for coffee or lunch in Maastricht solo.

Her physical muscle is matched with brain power – Woolaston is also studying for a law degree.

Bryony Botha

Botha said of the team pursuit in Jakarta, in which the team beat their previous best time by nearly two seconds: “It’s the fastest we have ever gone and we have literally not ridden much together, so this is just the beginning of something incredible.”

The Tokyo 2020 Olympian and world silver medallist in individual pursuit also has a degree in hand, having studied part-time over six years, graduating from the University of Waikato with a degree in social sciences in September 2022.

A “small tumble” on the last day at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in August resulted in a two-week extended stay in the UK due to a collapsed lung. Making the most of her enforced stopover, she headed to London to make like a tourist, ice cream included.

Ellesse Andrews

The 23-year-old made good on the Emerging Talent gong she received at the Halberg Awards in 2018 – secured after setting a junior world record at the Junior Track Cycling World Championship in Italy in which she also claimed the overall title – by winning silver in the keirin at Tokyo 2020.

Andrews, who was born at 11.45 pm on 31 December 1999, fifteen minutes short of the year 2000, was a finalist in the Sportswoman of the Year at the same awards last month. Up against illustrious names such as Dame Lisa Carrington (sprint kayak), Lydia Ko (golf) and Ruahei Demant (rugby) it was snowboarding superstar Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, who bagged gold and silver in slopestyle and big air respectively at Beijing 2022, who came away with the accolade.

Andrews will be looking to improve on her fourth place in the keirin in Jakarta last time out, in order to keep adding to her burgeoning medal collection.

Rebecca Petch

In an emotional video last year, Petch announced she would be leaving behind her beloved BMX racing and concentrating on track cycling instead.

A Tokyo 2020 Olympian in the former, switching cycling formats is not the only change for Petch over the past few months. She also set up a business, Little Petchy Coffee Bar, which she runs from a converted caravan in Cambridge, New Zealand, although a stress emoji accompanied a comment on her website stating: “I decided it would be a cool idea to renovate an old caravan to serve coffee out of. (The renovating seemed like such a cool idea at the time, wouldn’t recommend).

“Starting a business and changing sports are two of the most challenging things I’ve taken on this year but I’m grateful for the growth that it’s given me and can’t wait for what 2023 will bring!”

Turns out 2023 brings more change; Petch got married in January!

Track Cycling Nations Cup what's next

The third and final edition of the 2023 Track Cycling Nations Cup series takes place in Milton, Canada from 20-23 April.