Like Jamie Staff before him, the 22-year-old from Somerset showed the power output potential to bid for man one in the team sprint and spent six months training on the track, earning a bronze medal in the event with Phillip Hindes and Kian Emadi at the recent National Track Championships before making the decision to return to BMX.

Upon joining the track cycling squad, Phillips, who was partly prompted to switch to the track by a succession of injuries that had affected his previous four seasons in BMX, likened trying to break into the team sprint to a footballer "trying to break into the Barcelona team".

Shanaze Reade, the women's BMX world champion, attempted a similar switch into track cycling's team sprint alongside Victoria Pendleton, but with mixed success and was overlooked at the last World Championships when Jess Varnish got the other ride with the Olympic individual champion.


Reade (pictured first left) returned to BMX, and now Phillips is heading back too, despite spending almost three times as long as his female counterpart did in learning the new event.

Speaking of his decision, Phillips said: "My time training on the track was fantastic and it was such an awesome opportunity to train with the sprint squad.

"Ultimately though, I missed my BMX bike and as such have made the decision to return to BMX racing."

Part of Phillips calculation was based on the fact that he will now have seven months to reacquaint himself with BMX, where Britain has a guaranteed Olympic place as the host nation, meaning he will not need to do qualification races, thus giving him more time to rest his battered limbs.

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