Queen of cycling Anna Meares on course for Rio Olympics Olympic gold medalist Anna Meares, centre, racing at the Adelaide SuperDrome on Wednesday night. CYCLING superstar Anna Meares is boldly eyeballing a new world record after launching her Road to Rio in Adelaide on Wednesday night. Meares blew off the cobwebs in her first race in almost a year, at the Adelaide Cycling Grand Prix, easing home to win her opening heat of the women's keirin at the SuperDrome. It was her first competitive hit-out since she famously beat Victoria Pendleton in an epic sprint showdown in London last year. World cycling's queen of the track looked comfortable behind the pace bike from the opening lap last night. She sat second for the first five laps of the eight-lap race, before the move came from Japanese riders Kanako Kase and Ryoko Nakagawa. But Meares had the six-woman field covered and hit the front as the bunch crossed the line to begin the closing lap. Her only real challenge came from fellow Aussie Stephanie Morton, and the pair cruised home with a commanding 1-2. "I'm feeling good," she said. I think I'm going to have a ripper first two days and suffer for the third, fourth and fifth days because I just don't have the required fitness to get through five days of racing. But racing is what gets me through the daily grind of training so I'm excited to be back. I'm a little bit nervous as well. I know I'm going to be a bit rusty, but this is the fun part of it. Proving she was anything but a spent force, the 29-year-old entered the opening night of the five-day event saying the lure of defending her Olympic crown and beating her 500m time-trial world record fuelled her push to hit peak form for Rio in 2016. "I would like to get the 500 world record into a 32 second barrier," Meares said of her goals on her campaign to Rio. I was the first woman to knock it into a 33 (33.952 seconds, in her gold medal run in Athens in 2004), so I'd like to be the first to knock it into a 32. I would like to win another world title, because that would put me as the most successful woman's sprinter on the track. And I'd love to be able to get to Rio and defend the sprint and have another crack at the keirin and team sprint. So they're some of the goals I think are quite personal for me to try and achieve as opposed to going out there and trying to win every single bike race, I've got a few boxes I want to check along the way. Meares holds the 500m time-trial record of 33.010s, set in Melbourne last year. The Olympic hero had an extended break after her London triumph, and her return last night was hindered in the past month by a back injury. But there was no sign of discomfort as she showed why she's one of Australia's greatest cycling products. The 10-time world champion said she was bursting with motivation and retirement was never an option. "It's been interesting, talking to a lot of people and getting to meet a lot of people, that's been one of the big questions that comes up - `what's the motivation, why do you want to keep going?'," she said. The simple answer is I don't see being successful as a limiting factor. There are some personal goals that I would still like to achieve in this sport before I finally hang it up. And I still love what I do. I have a great environment to work with and train in. I still feel like I can improve and be challenged. While I've still got that excitement in what I'm doing on a daily basis, why should I give it up? Meares is using the five-day Adelaide meet, which runs until Saturday, as a springboard to cycling's opening world cup event in Manchester in November.