British cyclists have everything to lose in the world championships this week: they won seven gold medals a year ago, they're competing on their home track, and much is expected of them in the run-up to the Olympic Games in Beijing and to London 2012.
Their main rivals, the Dutch, have everything to win in Manchester.
The Netherlands had a disappointing world championships a year ago in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, winning only one gold medal _ courtesy of the irrepressible Theo Bos. But, taken across all disciplines and both sexes, they remain the strongest track cycling team in the world, and are the only team to have qualified by right for every event this year.
Winning the prized rainbow jersey will have special significance for riders this year _ the world champions in the 10 Olympic disciplines also gain automatic qualification for Beijing. Racing for the 18 gold medals begins on Wednesday and concludes Sunday.
Among the Dutch-British encounters expected in Manchester is the fight for the men's sprint medals between Bos and Chris Hoy.
Bos has yet to secure an Olympic gold medal. However, since his sprint silver four years ago, he has taken two further world championships to add to the one he won shortly before the Athens Games. In December 2006, he took the sprint world record that had stood for 11 years.
Hoy, meanwhile, has seen the event in which he won gold in Athens _ the 1-kilometer time trial _ scrapped from the Beijing program to make way for the BMX competition. So, he will be concentrating on the keirin _ for which he has already achieved Olympic qualification _ as well as the sprint and team sprint competitions.
Another encounter likely will come in the women's team sprint, where defending champions Victoria Pendleton and Shanaze Reade will face strong pressure from the Dutch pair of Willy Kanis and former speed-skater Yvonne Hijgenaar.
The Britons took gold in the inaugural running of the event a year ago, but the Dutch pair have won three of the four World Cup events this season.
Pendleton and Kanis will be seeking multiple sprint golds, both in Manchester and in Beijing, while Kanis and Reade are respectively the 2006 and 2007 BMX world champions and will also be fighting out the inaugural BMX competition in Beijing.
The British team will be without former points race world champion Chris Newton, who broke his collarbone in a training accident on March 6. Newton, however, has already qualified for the Olympics. Also out due to injury is former team sprint world champion Craig MacLean.
The U.S. team has a generally poor record in track cycling in recent years, but nevertheless can have strong hopes of gold from Sarah Hammer, looking to win a third straight world title in the women's individual pursuit.
The Australian team took a last-minute decision to withdraw Olympic time-trial champion and world record-holder Anna Meares, who had been set to make a rapid comeback from devastating injury.
A crash in the keirin at a World Cup event in Los Angeles in January left Meares in a wheelchair with a fractured neck vertebra and a dislocated shoulder.
"We did get medical clearance for Anna to ride the flying 200 meters, but not for match sprinting," Australia head coach Martin Barras said.
"In the circumstances, it didn't warrant the trip. We'd prefer she stay home and continue training."
The problem for Meares now will be to obtain the international ranking points she needs for Olympic qualifying. However, Barras said he was "reasonably confident" she would remain in the top nine after Manchester, thus meeting the standard.
Meares will be the first world champion to lose her title, as the women's time trial is the first event to be decided, on Wednesday evening.
Challengers for that title are likely to include eight-time world champion Natallia Tsylinskaya of Belarus _ beaten into third a year ago _ and last year's silver medalist, Lisandra Guerra of Cuba, who has won two of the four World Cup events this year.
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