WIGGINS SET TO LIGHT UP THE TRACK
Deprived of one knight-rider, the Commonwealth Games unexpectedly gained the presence of another who is expected to light up the Glasgow 2014 track programme.
Sir Bradley Wiggins can expect a welcome few Englishmen would receive in Glasgow when he rolls into the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome to compete on the Siberian pine while the Tour de France he won in 2012 is reaching its climax.
Sir Chris Hoy's retirement in April 2013 led some to suggest the gloss would come off the Commonwealth Games cycling programme, but Wiggins' inclusion has merely added another coat.
Laura Trott and Jason Kenny - girlfriend and boyfriend and possessors of five Olympic gold medals between them - may have made disparaging remarks about the importance of the Commonwealth Games, but their England team-mate Wiggins just loves to ride his bike and race for medals, having last competed in the event in 2002.
Wiggins is a British sporting icon and, according to Hoy, the most complete cyclist the UK has produced, winning titles from four-kilometres to 3,500km.
He is likely to ride in the individual pursuit in Glasgow and the road time-trial, where David Millar will be bidding to defend his title on home soil.
Millar is retiring at the end of the year after a distinguished professional career punctuated by a two-year doping suspension, yet he was accepted into Scotland's Commonwealth Games team in Delhi in 2010 with open arms and delivered.
The Malta-born, Hong Kong and Buckinghamshire-raised resident of Catalunya has led a nomadic existence, but Scotland has always been home and he was so proud to follow up his bronze medal in the road race in India with gold in the time-trial.
Having missed selection for a 13th and final Tour de France, the 37-year-old Millar will have even greater incentive to triumph in Glasgow.
Millar and the Isle of Man's Mark Cavendish were inseparable in 2010, but prolific winner Cavendish - British champion on the Glasgow road race course in 2013 - will be absent this time following shoulder surgery after his crash on the opening day of the Tour de France in Harrogate.
The Isle of Man will be represented by Pete Kennaugh, another Team Sky rider who was unfortunate to miss out on Tour selection, while Geraint Thomas will lead Wales' charge as the home nations seek to fend off the overseas challenge, most notably coming from Australia.
Lizzie Armitstead won the women's title as Cavendish won the men's a year ago and will lead England in the road race - although Trott offers an alternative leader - while also competing in the time-trial alongside good friend Joanna Rowsell.
Northern Ireland's Wendy Houvenaghel is also poised to ride in the time-trial, having fallen out of contention for the British team.
There could some an intriguing track battle between Olympic and world championship-winning team-mates Rowsell, Trott, Dani King, Elinor Barker of Wales and Katie Archibald of Scotland.
The quintet will vie for the honours in the points and scratch races and the individual pursuit, with Archibald on home territory.
The former swimmer from Milngavie, north of Glasgow, has been a revelation in the last year and is Scotland's only female track cycling world champion.
Sadly for Wales, Becky James, the two-time world champion, is absent with a knee injury, but her sister Rachel is in the tandem competition as pilot for former Paralympic swimmer Rhiannon Henry.
Neil Fachie and Craig MacLean compete for Scotland in the corresponding men's events and the Paralympic champions have a good chance, too.
World champion Martyn Irvine will be optimistic of adding to his medal collection for Northern Ireland on the track in what is sure to be a star-studded field, with Ed Clancy of England, Australia's Anna Meares and Awang Azizulhasni of Malaysia among the main protagonists.
As well as the track and the road, Glasgow 2014 features a cross-country mountain bike competition at Cathkin Braes Mountain Bike Trails, where 2012 Olympian Annie Last has a good medal chance for England.
