Tasmanian Georgia Baker’s gold rush has her on track for Tokyo Olympics

Tasmanian rider’s golden form has her on track for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Annette Edmondson, of Adelaide, and Georgia Baker, of Tasmania with the Madison gold medals they won at the World Cup track cycling in Brisbane. Picture: JOHN VEAGE

BACK-to-back World Cup track gold medals in Brisbane at the weekend has Tasmanian cycling star Georgia Baker on target to ride for Australia at the Tokyo Olympic Games next year.

Baker, 25, of Launceston, was part of the Australian teams pursuit foursome – along with Annette Edmondson, Ashlee Ankudinoff and Maeve Plouffe – to win the gold-medal race by a mere .32s on Friday.

Australia's Georgia Baker (right) slings teammate Annette Edmondson during the Madison event at the Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Cup at the Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane. Picture: AAP IMAGE/DAN PELED

Baker then teamed with Edmondson to dominate the Madison event, winning with 30km relay race with 56 points from France (51) and USA (32) on Saturday night.

Baker won silver in the Madison at the world championships earlier this year, gold at the Madison World Cup round in Glasgow last month and followed by more Madison gold at Cambridge World Cup event.

“We’re really lucky in the Australian Cycling Team because we have so much depth in our program so we can swap partners and still come away with really good results,” Baker said.

“Nettie and I had a successful campaign in Glasgow and that was a very sprint dominant race so we wanted to try something different here.

“It’s nerve-racking going out there and trying something new but it’s also really exciting and I think we have done the training to back ourselves in and pull off a good result no matter what happens.”

Georgia Baker and Annette Edmondson celebrate victory in the final of the Women's Madison 30km event during the 2019 Brisbane Track World Cup. Picture: BRADLEY KANARIS/GETTY IMAGES

Baker said winning the race was “pretty cool”.

“We tried a couple of different tactics from last Friday and Glasgow and we’re really happy we pulled it off,” she said.

“I think in the past we were quite new to this discipline so whenever we got on the front we were like ‘oh my gosh we’re in front let’s go’ and we’d win by too much if we happened to win it or we’d be out the back, so we wanted to try and make it a bit more consistent.”