WEYMOUTH'S Rebecca Raybould will make the step into the big time this weekend at the TISSOT UCI Track World Cup.

The event, held in Manchester, sees the best riders in the world vie for all-important UCI points in a bid to qualify for the end-of-season World Championships, in March.

Raybould will be making her debut on the World Cup stage as she hopes to be selected for the Team Breeze team pursuit quartet.

And the 19-year-old, a junior world champion a little more than 12 months ago, is hoping to rely on past experiences to help her through the step up.

“I’m really looking forward to the World Cup - I haven’t ever done one before so it’ll be a new experience for me and I’m hoping to learn quite a lot from it,” she said.

“I’ve been picking people’s brains a little bit. We train a lot with the senior group so we’re always trying to learn as much as possible from them.

“I keep thinking back to the junior ranks when I went to Euros and Worlds - and this event is reminding me of them, in terms of the size.

“I’m trying to think back and remember what things I was doing to stay calm, keep my nerves in check - but I’m definitely still looking forwards to the racing.”

Raybould is one of five Team Breeze – the British Cycling development squad – riders hoping to make the final race quartet for today’s women’s team pursuit.

But with the senior British team riding and squads from around the world descending on Manchester to race, she knows qualifying for the first round will be a success in itself.

“We’ve got team pursuit qualifying in the morning - so hopefully that will go well for us as we’re hoping to qualify for the next round,” she added.

“But it will be quite a tough race I reckon.”

Raybould is in her second year on the British Cycling senior academy, with two of the five riders selected having only joined the programme and moved to Manchester last month.

But having ridden with them in previous age groups she backed the team to get it right on the day.

“I’m confident that we’ll ride quite well as a team, so it should be a good event.

“The fact we’ve all ridden together is a big help - you need to be well-drilled to do a good team pursuit performance.

“I first joined British Cycling in the second year of the talent team - as it was then. That was quite a big step for me.

“I feel like British Cycling have brought me so much further as a person and as a rider. It’s really so nice to be able to have that support.

“I’ve come a long way in those three or four years and I’ve really enjoyed my experiences so far.”

On November 10-12, incredible riders like Rebecca Raybould will compete on the Manchester Velodrome in one of the most anticipated events on the track cycling calendar. Buy your tickets at trackworldcup.co.uk/tickets/