Asian cycling powerhouses Japan and China are expected to challenge Australia at the UCI Track World Cup Round Three at the Velodrom Nasional in Nilai starting tomorrow.
Having hosted the 2023 and 2025 editions of the, Nilai provides a familiar setting for Japan, who field a squad brimming with talent.
The team includes athletes who won gold medals on those occasions, including Naoki Kojima, Maho Kakita, Mizuki Ikeda and Yumi Kajihara, a former UCI World Cycling Centre trainee. Rising stars in the Japanese teams includes Kanta Umezawa, winner of the points race at the Asian Championships, further strengthen a squad aiming for the overall victory.
However, China are also expected to deliver a strong performance after their recent haul at the 2026 Asian Track Cycling Championships last month in Tagaytay, Philippines.
Xie Han, Zhiheng Jin, Li Zhiwei, Ruiting Huang, Zhengyu Pei, Junjie Wu, Wentao Sun, Haijiao Sun, Xuehuang Luo, Liying Yuan, Lijuan Wang, Suwan Wei, Ning Chen, Xianbing Gong and Xiaoyue Wang all claimed gold medals in the Philippines.
Within this group, Liying also triumphed in Nilai in 2023 and has been one of the standout performers of the 2026 UCI Track World Cup so far, excelling in both individual and team sprint events.
Winners of the first round (6-8 March) on home soil, in Perth, the Australians retain top position after the most recent action in Hong Kong, China, where it was Team GB who achieved the greatest tally: 13,105 points, notably powered by three gold medals. However, it was China (10,344 points) and Japan (11,401 points) in their wake who built on their strong start of the season to significantly close the gap behind the first placed nation.
Ahead of the last three days of competition, set to close the battle for victory in the reshuffled series and to shape the hierarchy among nations vying for qualifying quotas for the 2026 Tissot UCI Track World Championships (Shanghai, China, in October), Australia are up to 19,946 points, while China have claimed 18,880, and Japan 18,505. Great Britain (14,625 points) and Germany (13,947 points) round out the current top 5.
Hosts Malaysia’s biggest hope will be on 35-year-old Azizulhasni Awang, who sat out the Hong Kong leg of the UCI World Cup last week. Azizulhasni will compete in the men’s keirin and individual sprint events.
The Chinese won the Women team sprint in Perth and Hong Kong, and are the only contenders in a position to dominate a specialty across all three rounds, with Matthew Richardson, a two-time winner of the Men sprint, not racing this weekend.
Germany will be relying on the return of Moritz Augenstein and Roger Kluge to climb the rankings. The New Zealand men’s and women’s pursuit teams dominated both events in Round 2, while riders such as Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands), Anita Yvonne Stenberg (Norway), Yareli Acevedo (Mexico), and Matteo Fiorin (Italy) will also look to build on previous success as they head into the final round of the UCI Track World Cup.
The performances by the cyclists will not only decide the overall winners, but also shape the hierarchy among nations vying for qualification quotas for the 2026 UCI Track World Championships in Shanghai, China in October.
