A 14-strong New Zealand track cycling team will this month contest the first major stepping stone towards the Paris Olympic Games.

The team will head to Indonesia to compete in the first of three Nations Cups, which is a super-version of the previous World Cup competitions, taking part in the four-day competition at the lavish Jakarta International Velodrome built for the 2018 Asian Games.

The New Zealand team will compete in the team pursuit for males and females and the women’s team sprint along with the key individual events, with the Nations Cups providing crucial qualifying points for the world championships and ultimately, the Paris Olympics.

The team, led by Commonwealth Games stars Ellesse Andrews, Aaron Gate and Bryony Botha, leave next week for the opening Nations Cup from 24-29 February.

“It is quite a cut-throat qualification process with three Nations Cups in Jakarta this month, Cairo in March and Milton in Canada in April,” said Cycling New Zealand interim high performance manager, Amy Taylor.

“We are looking for strong performances from the get-go to establish strong points across our key Olympic events, firstly to ensure we can race these events at the world championships in Glasgow in August, and secondly to set us up for qualification for Paris.

“For us the focus is on the quality of our performances – not just qualifying - as we have medal goals looking ahead to Paris.

“We have not been in a fully-fledged global competition since Tokyo so this will be a litmus test of where we are at.”

The women’s team pursuit, gold medallists in Birmingham, are boosted with the return of Ally Wollaston, who was a late withdrawal at the Commonwealths with injury, while Auckland’s Prudence Fowler, 20, makes her debut.

The men’s team pursuit is anchored with key riders Aaron Gate and Campbell Stewart, who have time away from their professional road teams for this key track block. They are joined by fellow Commonwealth Games riders George Jackson and Nick Kergozou with Dan Bridgwater making his debut.

Fellow Commonwealth Games riders Tom Sexton and Corbin Strong have duties with their respective road teams.

The women’s team sprint, exciting winners at the Commonwealth Games, are led by triple Games gold medallist Ellesse Andrews along with Rebecca Petch and Olivia King.

Sam Dakin is the sole men’s sprinter, chasing ranking points in the sprint and keirin, with the team sprint combination not yet at the level to push for Olympic qualification.

“Overall it is an experienced but young group. In terms of endurance racing, we will need to work with those in professional road teams, mixing the benefits of their high level road riding with conversion back to track at key times.

“It also allows us to develop some rising young athletes who have impressed us with their performances and their work ethic,” said Taylor.

The team leaves on Monday 20 February.

The team is: Sprint, female: Ellesse Andrews, Rebecca Petch, Olivia King. Male: Sam Dakin.

Endurance, female: Bryony Botha, Michaela Drummond, Ally Wollaston, Emily Shearman, Prudence Fowler. Male: Aaron Gate, Campbell Stewart, George Jackson, Nick Kergozou, Dan Bridgwater.