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Olympic bronze medallist Chris Newton has slammed the proposed changes to the Olympic cycling schedule for London 2012.

In a bid to achieve gender equality within Olympic track cycling, a proposal to add a women's team sprint and a women's keirin has been put forward by world governing body the UCI.

But the International Olympic Committee, which will ratify any changes at their Executive Board meeting in December, has ruled out the possibility of the number of track cycling events increasing.

That would mean the individual pursuit, the madison and the points race would be struck off from the Olympic programme with a men's and a women's omnium added to take the number of events to ten.

Newton, 36, claimed his Beijing bronze in the points race and has lashed out at the UCI's decision to favour the shorter races.

"I think it's s**t, absolutely garbage," said twice world champion Newton.

"They're taking three big endurance events out to make way for a glorified decathlon for sprinters.

"But what am I? I'm only a bloody cyclist and the powers-that-be do it (make the decisions), so what can I do?

"I think (the points race) is being taken out. I've heard its going down to the omnium, so I'll have a bit of a retrain and a rethink after the World Championships."

The proposed changes have been met with mixed reactions within the British camp with some set to miss out on events, with others able to compete in more.

Should the proposal go ahead, Bradley Wiggins would miss out on the chance to defend his individual pursuit crown for the second time, but Victoria Pendleton would compete in three events rather than one.

But the current women's sprint champion is refusing to get carried away just yet.

"I'm not really commenting on that much because it's not finalised until December," she added.

"Until the IOC put their stamp of approval on it because I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch.

"It's very exciting, I hope it does come through. It's sad to lose all those amazing events for all the other athletes, but we'll wait and see what they say."

Meanwhile, Sir Chris Hoy, reigning Olympic champion in keirin, individual and team sprint will still have the chance to defend all three titles.

But after missing the chance to defend his 2004 kilo gold after the event was removed from the 2008 Olympic programme, the flying Scot can sympathise with those who will miss out.

"It's a great shame for the guys who were going to be in the pursuit and in the points race," he said.

"I know how that feels, to have your event scrapped.

"The kilo, which is the event I won in Athens, was dropped from the programme before Beijing.

"It's incredibly frustrating when you spend a year competing and training towards something and then you're told that there's no event for you to compete in.

But I can see why they did it. It's important that there's parity between the men and the women.

"It's just a shame that other sports don't seem to have to drop their events to make way for new ones but cycling does."

More Than The Games / Eurosport