STEVEN Burke admits his dream Olympic call-up has come completely out of the blue.

The 20-year-old, from Colne, revealed he had actually set himself the target of reaching the 2012 Games in London.

But the cyclist has no complaints about his early call-up to the Great Britain team pursuit squad.

He said: “I was really shocked when I received the phone call. I didn’t expect it at all.

“I’d been training with a view to competing at the 2012 Games so this has almost come completely out of the blue.

“It’s certainly four years earlier than I expected and, to be honest, it hasn’t really sunk in yet.

“Ever since I started I always wanted to be the best that I could.

“This means everything to me. It’s the biggest competition for athletes and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Great Britain’s cycling team opted for youth over experience in filling the last places for the 25-rider squad that will travel to Beijing.

And Burke’s inclusion ahead of Steve Cummings, who performed strongly in this year’s Giro d’Italia and will instead ride the road race and time-trial, came as something of a surprise.

But the former Park High pupil said: “In the last few weeks I’ve been really going for it, but if you’d told me last winter I would be going to the Olympics I wouldn’t have believed you.”

Burke was a team pursuit gold medalist at last year’s European Under-23 Championships in Germany and this year claimed gold in the UCI Track World Cup in Copenhagen.

He is currently in Majorca taking part in a road training camp to build endurance, which will be followed by another camp in Newport, Wales ahead of their departure to Beijing.

Burke has been selected as the sixth member of the squad alongside Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas, Edward Clancy and Bradley Wiggins and is likely to be used during the qualifying rounds, which are due to be held on August 14.

And he said he was heading over to the Far East full of confidence.

“I won a gold with the team in Denmark earlier this year so I’ve proved that I can do it at the very top level in the sport,” he said.

“Hopefully I can keep that up.”

“There’s a good team behind me. We’ve got the current World Champion and World Record holder. I’m hoping we can go over there and win.”