FORMER world champion Becky James is back in the Great Britain team for next month’s world track cycling championships in London – returning after two years out and setting her sights on this summer’s Rio Olympics.

James, who is joined in the team by fellow Welsh riders Elinor Barker, Ciara Horne and Owain Doull, will ride the keirin.

A knee injury and a cancer scare have prevented the 24-year-old from Abergavenny returning to the heights she reached at the world championships in Minsk in February 2013, when she won gold in the match sprint and keirin and bronze in the 500m time trial and the team sprint.

In Cali in 2014, she claimed bronze in the team sprint and keirin but was then forced to have an operation to remove abnormal cells discovered during a routine cervical smear test.

That was followed by a serious injury in her left knee that led to her missing the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow – just as she had London 2012 after having to have her appendix removed.

But after a protracted recovery, and having ridden a full winter season with World Cup races in New Zealand and Hong Kong, James is feeling good.

“My knee is really good. I’ve had no problems, that’s the most important thing,” she told the Guardian.

“It’s the first time since the world championships in 2014 that I’ve felt like this: I’ve been working super hard, I’m getting better and better and enjoying it, so I’m happy because I’m getting more and more out of each training session.

“Everyone has been wary of me doing too much training, so I’ve had to take it into my own hands a bit; if I can’t push myself to the maximum I don’t get the best out of myself.”

James will focus on the keirin in the world championships at Lee Valley VeloPark in London from March 2 to March 6.

“Getting the opportunity to ride anything is good, and all the work I’ve done has been for the keirin – to go long, go hard,” said James.

“It’s the one event I truly love, going back to when I rode in Japan in 2013. I haven’t done one since the national championship in September, so I need to get as many opportunities as possible.

“Missing London was hard,” she added. “Missing Glasgow was hard but if I can get a spell of consistent good hard work in I can get in a very good place for Rio. I believe in myself. I feel like a bike rider again.”