Track Worlds news shorts: Gaviria hopes to bring San Luis form onto track

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Gaviria optimistic of taking 2015 success onto the track

Fernando Gaviria is hopeful of backing up his recent successes at the Tour de San Luis with a medal at the UCI Track World Championship.

The 20-year-old Colombian got the better of Mark Cavendish on two occasions at the Argentinian race in January and approaches the track worlds in Paris this week full of confidence. Gaviria has since been linked with a possible move to Cavendish's Etixx-QuickStep team.

"I'm going with the hope of being up there with the best," he told Antena2, "and why not dream of a medal."

Colombia is known for its climbers but Gaviria is all about speed and won two World Championships gold medals at junior level in 2012. "On top of the training we've done in the past few months, the key will be to race intelligently against the other competitors," he said. "They are all very strong and, although I don't know exactly who I'll be up against, I will have to pay attention to Elia Viviani, European omnium champion in 2014."

Any lingering misgivings Laura Trott may have harboured over last year's changes to the omnium format appear to have been banished ahead of this week's track World Championships in Paris.

Under the new format, the rider with the most points, rather than the least, is the winner, while the points race has replaced the 500m time trial as the final event, with all points going towards riders’ totals.

Trott, the reigning Olympic champion and two-time World Champion in the discipline, admitted to having initial reservations about the revamp.

"When it first came out, I was like, 'What have they changed it for?', because I have had success with the way it used to be and I still rely quite heavily on the 500m time trial to get me the win," she told Sky Sports.

However, after claiming victories under the new format at the European Championships and the Track World Cup last year, she's a convert.

"I tried it at the Euros and it went really well," she said. "I thought, 'Have I just fluked that?', but at the London World Cup it obviously went well again. For me now, it takes the pressure off any one race, because you make the points up at the end because any points you get in the points race add up to your total. I am actually really happy with the change. I do quite like it now."