Strong performances are essential for UCI Track Champions League riders in the lead up to 2024 Olympic Games just 12 months away. There is a lot at stake as the competition heats up in Glasgow this week.
The inaugural UCI Cycling World Championships begin this week, combining 13 individual UCI World Championships into one mega 11-day event in Glasgow and across Scotland. Track is one of the disciplines that kick off on the opening day, with track taking place from 3-9th August in Glasgow’s Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, named after multiple UCI World Champion, Olympic Champion and UCI Track Champions League ambassador Sir Chris Hoy.
In many ways, the UCI Track Cycling World Championships mark the prelude to the UCI Track Champions League season, not least because it is a crucial qualification event. With that in mind, this article previews the upcoming competition and highlights the champions who will be competing for gold medals and rainbow bands in Glasgow.
63 of the 72 riders who competed during the 2022 UCI Track Champions League season are racing in Scotland, with the total over both seasons adding up to no less than 88 athletes. That number includes all of the reigning and former League champions, most of them chasing a title defence in at least one event.
MEN’S SPRINT
Reigning men’s Sprint champion Matthew Richardson (Australia) is racing three events including Team Sprint where he hopes to defend the 2022 title, along with teammate and fellow UCI Track Champions League athlete Thomas Cornish. Richardson will also race the Keirin and Individual Sprint where his intense rivalry with Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) will be rekindled.
Lavreysen will be one to watch on the boards of the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome with no less than 11 UCI World titles to his name. In both seasons of the UCI Track Champions League, the now-26-year-old Dutchman was able to wear rainbow bands throughout the series having claimed Sprint and Keirin titles for three years in a row – so far. His Australian rival, though, will be hoping to recreate some of the success he enjoyed on his way to overall victory in London last winter.
Fellow Dutch superstar and reigning 1km Time Trial UCI World Champion Jeffrey Hoogland will join Lavreysen in the Netherlands squad for the Team Sprint, in which the veterans, compared to the Australians at least, will hope to reclaim the rainbow bands that they owned for four consecutive years until the young Australian squad snatched the title in the French National Velodrome in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines last year.
WOMEN’S SPRINT
The women’s Sprint category boasts the most UCI World Champions over both seasons, including reigning women’s Sprint champion Mathilde Gros (France), who took her first gold medal at her home velodrome in 2022. The 23-year-old extended a strong tradition at the UCI Track Champions League, taking after six-time UCI World Champion Emma Hinze (Germany) who was overall champion in the inaugural 2021 season. Gros and Hinze will meet three times in Glasgow, both racing Keirin, Individual Sprint and Team Sprint, along with individual event winners Martha Bayona (Colombia), Steffie van der Peet (Netherlands), and 2020 Olympic Individual Sprint Champion Kelsey Mitchell (Canada).
While Gros hopes to defend her Individual Sprint UCI World title, and teammate Taky Marie-Divine Kouamé (France) aims for back-to-back Time Trial titles, Hinze will be joined by fellow UCI Track Champions League athletes Pauline Grabosch and Keirin UCI World Champion Lea Sophie Friedrich in their quest to take a fourth consecutive Team Sprint title for the dominant German team.
MEN’S ENDURANCE
There are no less than 27 Endurance athletes, across both UCI Track Champions League, heading to Glasgow, including reigning champion Claudio Imhof (Switzerland) and twice runner-up Sebastián Mora (Spain). Imhof will contest Elimination, Individual Pursuit, Team Pursuit and Madison, with 2016 Scratch UCI World Champion Mora racing Madison and the multi-event Omnium.
2021 champion Gavin Hoover (United States) and fourth round Elimination winner in 2022, is going to be very busy on the boards, racing Elimination, Madison, Team Pursuit and Omnium.
For current Scratch UCI World Champion Dylan Bibic (Canada), Glasgow marks just his second UCI World Championships at elite level. The young Canadian is due to race five events, including a hopeful defence of his Scratch title on the first evening of competition. Earlier that same day, which also happens to be his 20th birthday, he’ll be joined in the Team Pursuit qualification round by Mathias Guillemette, who led the men’s Endurance league after two rounds last year.
WOMEN’S ENDURANCE
2021 Endurance League champion and 2022 runner-up Katie Archibald (Great Britain) will be riding on home turf in Scotland. Among the handful of events she’s contesting, the four-time UCI World Champion and record-breaking European medalist has her sights set on a third Omnium title, which she last claimed in Roubaix in 2021. Another big goal is the Team Pursuit, in which Great Britain has thrived for over a decade. That said, Archibald and her teammates have not seen the top step of the podium since the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and their last UCI World title was in 2014. Momentum is on their side, though, with bronze in 2021, silver at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in 2022, and an emphatic European title earlier this year.
There will be a lot of familiar faces sharing the start line with Archibald, including reigning Endurance champion Jennifer Valente (United States) who got the better of the Brit over the duration of the UCI Track Champions League in her debut appearance. The five-time UCI World Champion was a standout competitor all series, only finishing off the podium twice – fourth both times – and taking Elimination victory in round four.
That proven consistency will serve Valente well in the six events she’s slated for, including Omnium and Team Pursuit, two events she’s won before, most recently adding the 2022 Omnium UCI World title to Olympic gold in Tokyo. The USA Team Pursuit squad, including Valente, has been one of the most prolific this past decade having taken four titles since 2014, and this year she’ll be joined again by teammate Lily Williams who joined the lineup for their world title-winning 2020 season.
Once again, the Endurance category is a particularly busy one, with all the main protagonists from the UCI Track Champions League heading for Glasgow, including race winners Anita Stenberg (Norway), Emily Kay (Ireland), Chloe Moran (Australia) and last year’s third-place overall Maggie Coles-Lyster (Canada).
LOCAL RIDERS
Alongside Archibald, early Endurance leader, Mark Stewart, is another of the 11 British UCI Track Champions League athletes lining up at their home UCI World Championships in Glasgow. The Scot, born in Dundee, took victory in the first and last Scratch races of the UCI Track Champions League and wore the leader’s jersey after the first round. Stewart will be joined by Madison partner Oliver Wood and William Perrett, both of whom won at least a single Endurance event during the 2022 UCI Track Champions League season.
Other home riders to look out for are Keirin and Sprint hopefuls Hamish Turnbull, Emma Finucane and Sophie Capewell, 2021 Endurance contenders William Tidball, Josh Charlton and Rhys Britton, the last two joining Oliver Wood in the Team Pursuit squad that hopes to defend Great Britain’s 2022 UCI World title, and Sophie Lewis, Scratch race winner in round two of the 2022 UCI Track Champions League.
RACE SCHEDULE
The track cycling events span from 3-9th August with the medal event scheduled at the following times (BST):
3rd August
19:50 – Women Elite Individual Pursuit
20:19 – Women Elite Team Sprint
20:27 – Men Elite Scratch Race
4th August
19:23 – Women Elite 500m Time Trial
19:58 – Women Elite Scratch Race
20:30 – Men Elite Team Sprint
5th August
19:07 – Men Elite Team Pursuit
20:28 – Women’s Elite Team Pursuit
6th August
18:34 – Women Elite Elimination Race
19:01 – Men Elite Individual Pursuit
19:57 – Women Elite Keirin
20:12 – Men Elite Omnium
7th August
18:28 – Men Elite Elimination Race
18:55 – Men Elite Sprint
19:34 – Women Elite Madison
8th August
17:25 – Men Elite 1km Time Trial
18:42 – Women Elite Points Race
19:44 – Men Elite Madison
9th August
18:33 – Women Elite Sprint
19:15 – Men Elite Points Race
20:11 – Men Elite Keirin
20:21 – Women Elite Omnium
Fans can follow the performance of the UCI Track Champions League athletes during this key event on the official UCI Track Champions League social media channels.
The official entry list for the 2023 UCI Track Champions League will be announced after the UCI Cycling World Championships.
