The roar of the embrocation, the smell of the crowd: there's nothing like track racing for up-close, high speed action.
With the Beijing Olympics just around the corner, track giants Britain, France and Australia know it’s now time to set down markers or forget dreaming about gold medal success in China this August. While Australia set a blistering pace on the Athens Olympic velodrome in 2004, in the past two years they have been playing catch-up to the new track pace-setters Great Britain.
Photographer Stephen McMahon was in the infield at the Manchester Velodrome on Wednesday night for the first day of the 2008 World Track Cycling Championships.
If you want to read more on the winners and losers in Manchester, head to the related links on the right hand side of this page.
Here are some of the best pictures from Wednesday night...
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