- Katie Archibald (Great Britain), Dylan Bibic (Canada), Alina Lysenko and Harrie Lavreysen (the Netherlands) crowned UCI Track Champions League winners after five rounds of racing.
- Racing on Saturday night’s Grand Finale was cancelled partway through after an incident during the first round of the Women’s Keirin.
- Katie Archibald secured her Women Endurance title with victory in the Scratch race. UCI Commissaires agreed to award victory to the leaders in the other three leagues based on points at the time of cancellation.
The 2024 UCI Track Champions League concluded on Saturday night after another incredible season of world-class competition. After Round 5 in London, the Grand Finale, Katie Archibald (Great Britain), Dylan Bibic (Canada), Alina Lysenko and Harrie Lavreysen (the Netherlands) were crowned this season’s UCI Track Champions League winners.
The series did not conclude with its usual ceremony, as Saturday’s Grand Finale was cancelled following an incident during the Women’s Keirin heats. The affected riders and spectators received immediate medical attention on site, with all but Katy Marchant (Great Britain) leaving the venue afterward. Katy was escorted to the hospital, where X-rays revealed a fractured radius and ulna in her right forearm, along with two dislocated fingers. She is now back home and receiving excellent care from her medical team.
With rider and spectators’ safety being the top priority, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Sports, British Cycling, Lee Valley VeloPark, and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) made the unanimous decision to suspend all further racing for the evening, thus concluding the 2024 series.
At the time of the incident and the event cancellation, the Women’s Endurance League had been completed, with Katie Archibald securing the title after winning the Scratch race. The other three leagues were still ongoing but are now considered final based on the points at the time of cancellation, as agreed by the UCI Commissaires’ panel.
Below is a summary of the winners’ incredible achievements this season, their paths to victory in the 2024 UCI Track Champions League, and another series of phenomenal racing.
THE 2024 UCI TRACK CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNERS
- Katie Archibald (Great Britain): winner of the Women’s Endurance League with 159 points
- Dylan Bibic (Canada): winner of the Men’s Endurance League with 130 points
- Alina Lysenko: winner of the Women’s Sprint League with 157 points
- Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands): winner of the Men’s Sprint League with 166 points
KATIE ARCHIBALD, WOMEN’S ENDURANCE CHAMPION
Katie Archibald was on fire this UCI Track Champions League season, maintaining a laser-like focus and an incredible consistency across every round of racing, while her rivals suffered peaks and dips in performance throughout the series. The British rider took four wins across the series, including winning the maximum 40 points from a spectacular opening round in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Paris, France).
From there, she never looked back, sporting the blue leader’s jersey all the way to the end. A win in Round 3’s Elimination race in Apeldoorn (the Netherlands) helped to build her advantage, and victory in the Scratch race in Saturday’s Grand Finale in London sealed the victory. She finished second four times, with a podium place in eight of her ten races testamenting to her impressive consistency.
The 37-year-old thrived in front of the home crowd in London, taking 37 points on the final night, and she finished with a huge 39-point lead over second-placed Anita Stenberg (Norway).
Archibald had been unsure of her form going into the series after suffering a succession of injuries earlier in the year, including breaking her leg in two places and tearing ligaments in June, which forced her to miss the Olympics. She returned to her best in time to win Team Pursuit gold at the 2024 Tissot UCI Track World Championships in October, her sixth UCI World Champion title, but then dislocated her shoulder. The injury left her in a race against time to get back to full fitness before the start of the UCI Track Champions League season.
Despite these setbacks – and the intense format and limited recovery time in the fast-paced UCI Track Champions League – Archibald fought for victory in every round and is now a three-time overall series winner.
Katie Archibald said: “It means a lot to win the Endurance League. It’s winning the overall, but you want to do it with rides that you’re proud of, and I’m very proud of both the Scratch and the Elimination and that actually means just as much as winning the overall. Some of the best memories I’ve had have been at this race, in the event Finale, I’ve had some of the loudest crowds I’ve ever heard and it gets a bit addictive! That’s the high I was chasing. I was on my knees by the end [of the Elimination] so I’m happy to have given it as much as I did.”
DYLAN BIBIC, MEN’S ENDURANCE CHAMPION
Dylan Bibic led the Men’s Endurance league from Round 1 in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, winning three races en route to defending his title from 2023. The Canadian was supremely consistent, finishing on the podium a further two times, and his aggressive racing strategy paid off. He ended the series 20 points ahead of his nearest challenger, Tobias Aagard Hansen (Denmark), and with three race wins to the Dane’s two.
Only one other rider, Peter Moore (USA) won two races across this season of the UCI Track Champions League, with Lindsay de Vylder (Belgium) and Will Perrett (Great Britain) taking the remaining two victories – demonstrating that this was a league packed with talent and possible contenders for the title. But it was Bibic who consistently brought his A game to stay head and shoulders above the rest of the field.
Victory in the Scratch race in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines – his very first race of the series – put him in pole position, while he enjoyed his best round in Round 2 in Apeldoorn. There, he finished second in the Scratch race before going one better in the Elimination, with the Canadian and Aagard Hansen sharing the top two spots across both races. The pair continued to trade blows and in the later stages of the contest it looked like a two-horse race for the title, although there were plenty of podium challengers making their presence felt.
Still just 21, Bibic has had a meteoric rise to the top of the sport, winning his first rainbow jersey in the Scratch race last year on his Tissot UCI Track World Championships debut. This year he took bronze in the Tissot UCI Track World Championships Elimination race, just a month before the start of the UCI Track Champions League, and carried that world-class form into the series.
Dylan Bibic said: “It feels great to be lifting this trophy once again and to have come away with multiple race wins this season. I’m proud of how I raced this season and handled the competition, especially after having a target on my back from leading since Round 1. I raced aggressively and consistently all the way through, I raced to win, and I’m really happy to have pulled it off. It feels great to have back-to-back titles after winning last year. The standard of competition has been really high this year and some of the guys really gave me a run for my money!”
ALINA LYSENKO, WOMEN’S SPRINT CHAMPION
Alina Lysenko was one of the revelations of this year’s UCI Track Champions League. A four-time junior UCI World Champion, Lysenko had a strong record but had yet to really test herself on the biggest stages against the toughest competition, including Olympic and elite UCI World Champions.
A third-place finish in the Sprint at the Tissot UCI Nations Cup in Hong Kong earlier this year was an indication of her speed, but she went into this series a relatively unknown quantity compared to many of her competitors.
On her debut in the UCI Track Champions League, the youngster more than proved her credentials. She scored an astonishing six race wins out of nine, including – most impressively of all – a history-making five consecutive race wins. Ellesse Andrews (New Zealand) and Harrie Lavreysen had both previously won four in a row, but the 21-year-old outdid them both, staying composed under pressure to pull off a historic win. In doing so, a new star was born.
A former figure skater, Lysenko switched to track cycling in her late teens – but despite her lack of experience compared to some of the other riders, she showed race craft as well as pure, unstoppable power throughout this series. With five wins, two further podium places, and just one early exit, she was incredibly consistent, beating the likes of Ellesse Andrews, Martha Bayona (Colombia) or Emma Finucane (Great Britain) en route to victory.
And what a margin of victory: Lysenko finished the series a massive 34 points ahead of Finucane, meaning she couldn’t have been caught even without racing the final Keirin.
Alina Lysenko said: “I’m so happy to have won the Women’s Sprint League. This was my first time competing in the UCI Track Champions League and facing many of the best riders in the world, so it feels amazing to finish as the overall winner. I felt a lot of pressure to maintain my lead in the overall competition and it was inspiring for me to have the chance to race against such strong competitors. I’m really proud to have come away with the series win on my debut in the competition, and to have made history as the first rider to win five consecutive victories!”
HARRIE LAVREYSEN, MEN’S SPRINT CHAMPION
Harrie Lavreysen enjoyed a formidable season in 2024, and he finished it on a high with victory in the Men’s Sprint league. Already a two-time champion, in 2021 and 2023, the Dutchman defended his title by winning a thrilling, tightly contested battle with his biggest rival, 2022 overall winner Matthew Richardson (Great Britain).
Lavreysen won five of his nine races and never finished lower than third place, displaying a phenomenal consistency and ability to recover across five intense rounds of racing. He finished second in both the Sprint and Keirin in Round 1, both times losing to Richardson, but he was just getting warmed up. The 27-year-old flew in front of his home crowd as the UCI Track Champions League headed to Apeldoorn for the first time. There he won both Sprint races to overtake Richardson in the leader’s jersey, which he would hold until the very end.
A maximum 40-point haul in Round 4 in London saw him pull away at the top, and after winning the Sprint once more at the Grand Finale, he was 20 points clear of Richardson on 166 points – the highest points tally of any of this season’s leaders.
Only one rider outside of the Lavreysen and Richardson dominance won a race this season, showcasing the incredible strength of these two rivals. That was Cristian Ortega (Colombia), who won the Keirin in Round 2.
Lavreysen’s victory in the Men’s Sprint league caps off an incredible year for him, which includes three Olympic golds – taking his career tally to five – and another three Tissot UCI Track World Championships titles. His haul of rainbow jerseys this autumn took him to a record 16 rainbow jerseys and made him the most decorated track cyclist at the UCI Track World Championships of all time. He also won the World’s Best Olympic Cyclist at the Vélo d’Or ceremony, recognising his spectacular achievements this year.
Harrie Lavreysen said: “My 2024 season has been incredible and I’m really happy to have finished it off with victory in the UCI Track Champions League. I didn’t feel in the best form at the start and there was some really tough racing throughout, especially against Matthew [Richardson], so I’m really proud to have pulled off the victory and to defend my title from 2023. It was amazing riding in front of my home crowd and bringing the UCI Track Champions League to Apeldoorn for the first time – it’s always special racing and winning at home and I’m really pleased to have been able to do that.”
The London Grand Finale of this season’s thrilling UCI Track Champions League also marked the conclusion of the competition’s first Olympic cycle.
Launched in 2021 in partnership between the events division of WBD Sports and the UCI to raise the profile of track cycling between Olympic Games, the final double-header at London’s Lee Valley VeloPark confirmed its success, bringing the total attendance for the 2024 UCI Track Champions League to over 20,000 spectators across five rounds.