LEICESTER MERCURY - Paul Jones

Another big challenge for George Atkins

George Atkins is about to sample another form of track cycling just a couple of weeks after making his World Cup debut.

Having ridden in Beijing for Great Britain at the end of last month, the Kibworth star is heading for Copenhagen this week to take his place in the frantic world of six-day racing.

"It will be quite an experience," said the 18-year-old, who was crowned Leicester Mercury Young Sportsman of the Year two weeks ago.

"I think I will learn quite a bit over there. The six-day events are really tough. A lot of it is about getting the technical stuff right."

Racing in Denmark begins tomorrow and runs through until Tuesday evening with the riders taking part in a demanding, varied programme of events raced in front of large, enthusiastic crowds each night.

And there will be little in the way of a break for Atkins, who is progressing well on British Cycling's Olympic Academy programme.

On February 15, he and his Academy colleagues will be involved in a series of development rides at Newport before they head out to Italy on March 5 for 15 days training, which will lead them straight into the road racing season.

"I think I've learned quite a lot already," Atkins added. "I've certainly learned to get my head down and work when I need to work."

He has also sampled the rarified atmosphere of competing in an elite event as Britain sent a young team over to China for the last round of the World Cup.

Atkins and company finished in eighth place in the team pursuit, though they were still awarded leaders jerseys as Britain stayed ahead of their rivals in the overall standings.

They clocked 4min 11sec in their ride, some way below the 4.05 they had targeted. However, that was only to be expected in the circumstances.

"A lot of the teams went slower than they had hoped for," Atkins explained. "The track was slow partly because it was so cold over there. I think we could have done 4.05 at Manchester but there were five teams all within 0.7 seconds of each other so we were only just off getting a second ride.

"If we hadn't had so much snow at home before we went out there we might have gone a second quicker."

Atkins was happy with the effort he had put in. "I felt really good on the day," he said. "I felt I came into my own. I've got no regrets and don't feel that I let anyone down.

"It was really useful for me to go to China. I think that when you look back you do learn a lot more than you think at the time."