Young Cyclists Ride to Glory in World Track Championships 2019

Cycling gained a lot of attention this month due to the World Track Championships, which lasted from February 27 to March 3. The World Track Championships of ten different cycling events, and it was held in Pruszków, Poland. In this year’s Championships, the events sported were individual and team sprinting, individual and team pursuits, the Japanese keirin, Madisons, and finally the Omnium. This year had a lot of close finishes as many male and female cyclists won new titles and rewards.

Most of the cycling events were held in a velodrome. Sprinting was one of the most basic of these events. In sprinting, there are two or more opponents, depending on whether it’s individual sprinting or team sprinting, where one of the cyclists tries to cross the line first, and in the process also tries to force his opponent to lag behind him.

Individual and team pursuits were the highlights of the event. In an ordinary individual pursuit race, the two cyclists start at opposite sides of the track. When the race starts they both start riding forward, and the goal is to overtake the opponent. If both cyclists are somehow unable to do so, then the first to complete 4 km for men, or 3 km for women, wins the race.

The Keirin is a very special type of cycling competition, which was created in 1948 in Japan. It wasn’t included in any professional sports events until the Olympics in 2000. In Keirin, the leader of the line of cyclists is on a motorcycle, electric bicycle, derny, or tandem bicycle. The leader leads the procession, accelerating slowly from 30 km/h to 50 km/h and the cyclists are required to stay behind the leader for 3 laps. As soon as the leader gets toward the end of three laps, he quickly leaves the track and the cyclists behind would need to speed toward the finish line. While sprinting at the end, a cyclist could exceed 70 km/hr. Before Keirin was considered a competition, it was a popular gambling event. Onlookers would bet to see which cyclist would win, and it proved effective as the crowds increased in capacity each week.

Another popular cycling event is the Madison. It got its name from Madison Square Garden in New York where the sport was originally held. These contests featured six-day races. Cyclists would exhaust themselves and frequently fell. When Teddy Hale won in 1896, he won “like a ghost, his face as white as a corpse, his eyes no longer visible because they’d retreated into his skull,” as one report described it. The owner of the stadium was upset when New York and Illinois ruled that no racer could race for more than 12 hours a day. But the promoter of this event at Madison Square Garden figured that if you gave a partner to the original cyclist, then the event could still go on for 24 hours, without any rider exceeding the 12 hour limit. Now the Madison is a relay race event in track cycling. Though the event was omitted from the 2012 London Olympics, the Olympic committee stated that it will be featured in the 2020 Summer Olympics.

One of the final events is the Omnium, which is a combination of several events. After the 2016 season, the Omnium consisted of the Scratch race, the Elimination race, the Tempo race, and the Points race. In the World Track Championship all but the Elimination race were played.

Here are this years results:
Men’s Individual Sprint:
– Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) placed first
– Jeffrey Hoogland (Netherlands) placed second
– Mateusz Rudyk (Poland) placed third
Women’s Individual Sprint:
– Lee Wai Sze (Hong Kong) placed first
– Stephanie Morton (Australia) placed second
– Mathilde Gros (France) placed third
Men’s Team Sprint:
– Dutch Team
– French Team
– Russian Team
Women’s Team Sprint:
– Australian Team
– Russian Team
– German Team
Men’s Individual Pursuit:
– Filippo Ganna (Italy) placed first
– Domenic Weinstein (Germany) placed second
– Davide Plebani (Italy) placed third
Women’s Individual Pursuit:
– Ashlee Ankudinoff (Australia) placed first
– Lisa Brennauer (Germany) placed second
– Lisa Klein (Germany) placed third
Men’s Team Pursuit:
– Australian Team
– British Team
– Danish Team
Women’s Team Pursuit:
– Australian Team
– British Team
– New Zealand Team
Men’s Keirin:
– Matthijs Büchli (Netherlands) placed first
– Yudai Nitta (Japan) placed second
– Stefan Bötticher (Germany) placed third
Women’s Keirin:
– Lee Wai Sze (Hong Kong) placed first
– Kaarle McCulloch (Australia) placed second
– Daria Shmeleva (Russia) placed third
Men’s Madison:
– Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt (Germany) placed first
– Lasse Norman Hansen and Casper von Folsach (Denmark) placed second
– Kenny De Ketele and Robbe Ghys (Belgium) placed third
Women’s Madison:
– Kirsten Wild and Amy Pieters (Netherlands) placed first
– Georgia Baker and Amy Cure (Australia) placed second
– Amalie Dideriksen and Julie Leth (Denmark) placed third
Men’s Omnium:
– Campbell Stewart (New Zealand) placed first
– Benjamin Thomas (France) placed second
– Ethan Hayter (Great Britain) placed third
Women’s Omnium:
– Kirsten Wild (Netherlands) placed first
– Letizia Paternoster (Italy) placed second
– Jennifer Valente (United States) placed third
Men’s Scratch Race:
– Sam Welsford (Australia) placed first
– Roy Eefting (Netherlands) placed second
– Thomas Sexton (Australia) placed third
Women’s Scratch Race:
– Elinor Barker (Great Britain) placed first
– Kirsten Wild (Netherlands) placed second
– Jolien D’Hoore (Belgium) placed third
Men’s Points Race:
– Jan-Willem van Schip (Netherlands) placed first
– Sebastián Mora (Spain) placed second
– Mark Downey (Ireland) placed third
Women’s Points Race:
– Alexandra Manly (Australia) placed first
– Lydia Boylan (Ireland) placed second
– Kirsten Wild (Netherlands) placed third
Men’s Time Trials:
– Quentin Lafargue (France) placed first
– Theo Bos (Netherlands) placed second
– Michaël D’Almeida (France) placed third
Women’s Time Trials:
– Daria Shmeleva (Russia) placed first
– Olena Starikova (Ukraine) placed second
– Kaarle McCulloch (Australia) placed third

This year’s World Track Championships were exhilarating, and let’s hope that next year’s will just be as entertaining!

Featured Image – A cyclist propelling his partner forward in a Madison racePhoto Courtesy of trackworldcup.co.uk

by Isaac Ma