A TRIO of county cyclists will be hoping to turn on the style with medal-winning rides after being picked for the Wales Commonwealth Games team to race at the Chris Hoy Velodrome in Scotland next month.

Teen sprint sensation Ioan Hepburn will be making his debut CG appearance, while Old Monmothian Lewis Oliva from Devauden will be looking to medal again after his last appearance at the Gold Coast Games in 2018, when he landed keirin silver.

And Lowri Thomas from Abergavenny teams up again with Emma Finucane and Rhian Edmunds in the women's sprint team that won bronze in Birmingham in 2022.

Cross Ash’s Ioan, 18, has already won 2025 Junior World and Junior European Team Sprint titles, alongside the British Junior Sprint title, having been spotted on a Talent ID watt bike session at Usk Show as a youngster and then making it through to international honours within three years.

The Monmouth Comprehensive School student – who previously attended Raglan Primary, and remembers his first cycling memory as flying down the cattle field behind his first home in Gwehelog near Usk – has firmly established himself as one of Wales’ leading young sprint talents after coming through the Beicio Cymru pathway.

And he says: “As a proud Welshman, I’m honoured to be able to represent my country, and hopefully one day be able to sing the national anthem on the podium!”

Meanwhile, it will be a family affair for 33-year-old sprint and keirin cyclist Lewis, who is returning to international action alongside GB Olympian and CG medallist wife Ciara after having three children together.

It will be a fourth Games for the A&E doctor, having represented Wales at Delhi 2010, Glasgow 2014 and then in Australia four years later.

Alongside his Commonwealth Games success, Lewis also won European Championship bronze in the Men’s Team Sprint in 2012, multiple World Cup medals and British national titles, including back-to-back keirin titles in 2017 and 2018.

The Gold Coast Games came while Lewis was balancing elite cycling with studying medicine at Cardiff University.

And now the father-of-three young children, who also works as the team doctor for Bristol Bears RFC, returns to the CG velodrome saying: "It’s the highest honour as a proud Welshman to compete in the coveted red jersey. I’m so excited to be racing at the Commonwealth Games.”

Abergavenny Road Club's Lowri, who was the GB gold medal sprint team's travelling reserve in Paris 2024, won sprint team silver earlier this year at the European Championships in Turkey.

Cycling runs in the sport and exercise science student's family, with her granddad, dad and brother also riders, and her first cycling memory being of her dad chasing her around Abergavenny cyclo-cross, keeping her going on her first red bike when she was five.

And she says of the chance to race for her home nation again: “Getting to represent Wales at the international level is incredibly important to me, because we don’t often get a chance to in our sport.

"It makes it all the more meaningful and full of pride each time I get to be in the Welsh jersey.”

Wales is one of only six countries to have competed at every Commonwealth Games since 1930.

Its proud cycling record includes 29 Welsh medals won at 11 different editions of the Games, including every Games since Manchester 2002.