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How important are the World Championships?

It's the pinnacle of the sport this year and winning a medal is incredibly tough. However, countries take different approaches to the Worlds, particularly this close to an Olympic Games.

Australia, for example, have always insisted on throwing the kitchen sink at the World Championships. There are 10 gold medals on offer in Olympic disciplines and nine more in events which won't be part of London 2012, and the Aussies will go for broke at the whole lot.

"The Worlds are the Worlds. We wouldn't ever want to devalue them," Australian coach Gary Sutton . (Sutton is the older brother of British coach Shane.)

"The rainbow jersey still means a huge amount in this sport. We also take the view that we want to develop our athletes for way beyond London 2012. That means getting them out there racing as much as possible, and that includes non-Olympic races like the kilo, points, scratch and madison."

By contrast, British efforts are almost exclusively concentrated on the Olympic disciplines. There is likely to be some GB representation in the non-Olympic events but they're of mild interest to the team at best. What matters for Britain is tuning up for 2012 - if that involves winning a world title then great, but it's all about Olympic gold.

"The World Championships are great and I'm proud of the 10 gold medals I've won in my career," . "I'd love to win another but I'd sacrifice them all for another Olympic title. We are confident that we'll be at our best in London when it really matters."

If this isn't as important as 2012, how strong is the British team at the Worlds?

The British approach does not mean fielding a weakened squad - far from it. has been labelled the "nucleus" of the eventual Olympic line-up by British Cycling, and most of the big names are in.

Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas are important absentees. They in the men's team pursuit at last month's World Cup event in Manchester but are predominantly road cyclists and have returned to that domain for the summer. Lizzie Armitstead would have been in the women's omnium and possibly the team pursuit, but has pulled out with a side strain.

Otherwise, it's difficult to see how the GB team here could be strengthened. Matt Crampton, Ross Edgar and Jason Kenny join Hoy in as strong a sprint squad as Britain could probably field, while youngsters Laura Trott and Dani King are driving on the women's endurance squad, threatening the places of established stars like Wendy Houvenaghel and Joanna Rowsell. Trott, King and teenager Sam Harrison - who may get an outing in the men's omnium or team pursuit - are prospects which make British coaches visibly excited for 2012.

If GB are that strong, why are Australia suddenly top dogs?

Buoyed by funding around their own home Olympics in Sydney in 2000, Australia dominated track cycling in Athens in 2004, .

, they managed just one medal in the entire Olympic tournament and that was won by Meares, coming in behind Pendleton in the women's sprint - an Aussie defeat.

Since then Australia have dominated, easily topping the medal table at the 2009 and 2010 World Championships. There are various reasons for that, among them that Australian affection for the Worlds. British track cyclists, basking in Olympic glory, haven't quite had the same incentive to rip up the record books, knowing their focus is on a home Olympics.

But to say Australia's recent dominance is down to Britain sitting back is unfair on both parties. That shocker of an Olympic performance sparked the Australians into action, at the same time as a superb new generation of talent emerged from their junior ranks, and the truth is they have been on top up till now by virtue of being better in most events.

At this year's championships, watch out for the Australian men's team pursuit - in particular Jack Bobridge, who also goes in the non-Olympic (and therefore low-priority for Britain) individual pursuit. Bobridge made waves earlier this year, but his pursuit team-mates Luke Durbridge, Michael Hepburn and Leigh Howard are as talented and as dangerous.

Sprinter Meares is the brightest star from the previous Aussie track generation, although she's still only 27. She and Pendleton have been rivals for most of the decade - recently, Pendleton has had the better of the individual sprint but Meares has picked up golds in the team version.

Names like Amy Cure and Matthew Glaetzer, coming through the Australian ranks, have barely registered in Britain yet but will be worth a glance down the results lists later in the week. (Cure is in the Aussie women's endurance team, Glaetzer is a sprinter and may pop up in the keirin.)

Is it just Britain versus Australia then?

To read the two countries' newspapers, you would imagine so. Everybody loves to play up this rivalry and our own interviews with both and - in which Pendleton suggests there is pressure on Meares, and Sutton ponders whether the Australian team pursuiters might get "a bit of a shock" - have been seized upon by the Australian press.

"Sutton and Pendleton have resorted to playing mind games with the potent Australian team," . "The stirring from the British camp should not be that surprising; the Australians have set a cracking pace since their disappointing Beijing campaign and topped the table at the past two world titles."

However, a fair number of the British team will be more worried about traditional powers France and Germany, particularly the men's sprinters. Hoy, Kenny and Co face a French sprint team led by the formidable force of Gregory Bauge, particularly up against Hoy.

Bauge, 26, has won at least one world title in each of the last five years but came second behind Hoy's mob in the Beijing team sprint, which can only increase his hunger for an Olympic gold. Florian Rousseau, three times an Olympic champion on the track for France and now Bauge's coach, (pardon my rickety translation from the French): "Greg keeps improving. He has more experience. He's still young but has a better understanding of himself, his emotions and how to manage them."

Beyond France, look at China in the women's sprint events and New Zealand in the team pursuits for both genders. summed up how open the competition is, saying: "As well as the superpowers of Australia, Great Britain and France, the big cycling nations of the Netherlands, Russia, Germany and Spain in particular are really improving fast with their track programmes.

"We believe we have prepared well and across the board we are ahead of where we were at this time before last year's world championships."

If I only have time to catch a couple of races, what will the big battles be?

Again, the Telegraph's Brendan Gallagher has compiled a to the events, and we have our own slightly more detailed .

But the big ones are:

Wednesday: Men's team pursuit (favourites Australia against GB and New Zealand) and men's sprint (France, Germany, Britain - toss a coin).

Thursday: Women's team pursuit (Britain out to get their world title back from Australia with a young team) and women's team sprint (Pendleton versus Meares, round one).

Friday: Will Hoy or Kenny be the faster Briton in the men's sprint? And can they beat their European rivals?

Saturday: Lots on - Ed Clancy in the omnium, Pendleton versus Meares round two in the women's individual sprint, Hoy in the men's keirin where he ought to win.

Sunday is the women's keirin. If Pendleton is going for gold medal number three by this point then it's probably been a decent week for Britain, but she won't be expecting that.

If I had to choose two, I'd pick the men's team pursuit and the women's individual sprint. But I already feel bad for leaving some others out.

Isn't the individual pursuit worth watching?

The individual pursuit has been dropped from the list of Olympic events, so it won't be contested at London 2012. Cycling's world governing body, the UCI, in late 2009 - introducing the omnium and levelling up the number of male and female medals on offer.

This doesn't stop you taking an interest in the non-Olympic events, of course, and Bobridge could smash his own individual pursuit world record on Thursday if the conditions are right.

And that bloke who had the splinter in his leg?

Azizul Awang hasn't made the trip to the Worlds, which is unsurprising, given the grisly nature of his at last month's Track World Cup, but there was an outside chance for a time that he'd make it back.

earlier this month: "I am not competing in the World Championships as this is a muscle wound and I want to make sure I recover fully.

"But I am not deterred and I will come back aiming for the top again. The Olympics in London next year is still my major focus." When he does make his return, he'll be a challenger to Hoy in the men's keirin, the event in which he suffered the injury.