News shorts: Broken collarbone for Burke

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Burke aiming for Track Worlds comeback after broken collarbone

A team time trial  training session on Majorca ended with Great Britain Cycling Team's Steven Burke breaking his collarbone. The 26-year-old, who will ride for team WIGGINS this year, is part of the Great Britain track team and was preparing for the Track World Championships in Paris later next month but confident of making a full recovery in time.

"I'm really disappointed to be injured at this stage of the season, but I've been in the gym today and hope to be back training on the turbo this week," Burke said. "I aim to be back on the track as soon as possible so that I can resume training for the Track World Championships at the end of February."

Burke was part of the gold medal winning team pursuit squads at the London Olympics and the 2012 Melbourne Worlds and was also part of the silver medal winning teams at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the 2011 and 2013 Worlds.

Team director Shane Sutton believes that Burke will make a recovery and will be ready for the Worlds as Great Britain look to win back its team pursuit title it last won in 2012

"The accident on Sunday was unfortunate, particularly as Steve had been showing some great form of late, but these things do happen and we have an excellent team of people who will help Steve get back to full fitness as soon as possible," Sutton said.

Orica-AIS announced team for inaugural Santos Women's Tour

Australia's only professional women's team Orica-AIS will line up at the Santos Women's Tour from January 17-20 confident of success.

"From the outset we will be going for stage wins but also look to have a good strong general classification ride also," sport director Gene Bates said. "I think we have the team to be able to focus on both those objectives."

Loes Gunnewijk was the overall winner of the, formally known as, Santos Women’s Cup last year as Orica-AIS cleaned up also winning all three stages and occupying all three steps of the podium.

It will be a different race in 2015 with greater rider numbers and an extra day of racing.

"It will be a different race this year," Bates said. "Last year it was a reasonably low key event so we didn't see the quality of the field that we will see this year. It means we won't dominate to the same extent that we did last year, although that would be nice. For the race and for Australian women's cycling I think it is fantastic that they can get a really good event up and running and get it really well supported by not only Australian teams but also the inclusion of the Wiggle international team also."

Orica-AIS at the Santos Women's Tour: Loes Gunnewijk, Melissa Hoskins, Valentina Scandolara, Amanda Spratt and Lizzie Williams.

Barnes doubles up in Argentina

UnitedHealthcare's Hannah Barnes made it three wins in a row and two straight at the Tour Femenino de San Luis as she won the the second stage of the race in a bunch finish.

"Today's stage was the one that I won last year, so I knew the finishing stretch well," Barnes said post-race. "The sprint was a little chaotic but we got organized and the girls did a great job to keep me near the front. Alexis took it up with about 500 meters to go, with me on her wheel, and dropped me off perfectly with about 200 meters left till the line. I was able to take the win with yet another great team effort."

Barnes opened her 2015 account with victory at the Grand Prix Juana Koslay in a bunch sprint as she warmed up for the Argentinian stage race and her stage 2 wins means its three from three for the 21-year-old.

The six-stage race continues tomorrow with the 63.4km stage three from Merlo to Merlo.