THREE local riders are among 27 named by Team England today to compete at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in Australia.

The Gold Coast 2018 programme includes track cycling, para-cycling (track), road cycling and mountain bike, with Team England competing across all cycling disciplines.

The track cycling team includes 14 members of the Great Britain Cycling Team who successfully competed at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Apeldoorn last week, including the recently crowned world champion Charlie Tanfield from Great Ayton.

Charlie's brother Harry has been selected to compete in the men’s road race.

British Champion Frazer Clacherty, from Whitby, will contest the Mountain Bike racing.

Emily Nelson, Ethan Hayter and Kian Emadi are also part of the team.

Only five of the riders have previous Commonwealth experience across the track cycling, para-cycling, road cycling and mountain bike disciplines, with Olympic gold medallists Jason Kenny and Laura Kenny not participating and Lizzie Deignan electing not to defend the road-race title she won at Glasgow 2014.

Sprinter Philip Hindes, a two-time Olympic team sprint champion, Emadi, Helen Scott and Sophie Thornhill are the only members of the team that have previously won Commonwealth medals.

Team Leader Keith Reynolds said: “Our 27-strong team of riders will represent Team England across all the cycling disciplines at these Commonwealth Games.

“There is a lot of experience within the squad, with 14 riders having an Olympic, Paralympic or world championship medal to their name. Equally, there are riders for whom this event will play an important role as part of their development, and it’s great we can offer this to younger riders on the World Class Performance Programme as well as to non-programme riders.

“We’re happy with the team we’ve selected and there are some exciting prospects across the board, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the team gets on at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.”

Team England Chef de Mission Sarah Winckless said: “This is a really busy time of year for our cycling teams with the spring classics on the road, the world cup season starting for the mountain bikers and the world championships on the track so I’m delighted we are taking such a strong team to the Commonwealth Games.

"England has a long history in cycling at the Commonwealth Games having won over 100 medals. I’m hopeful this team will be able to add to that tally for Team and Country in just a few weeks time.”