Track Champions League cycling as it happened - GB's Katie Archibald and Mark Stewart take wins on opening night

Men’s endurance - Top 5
Mark Stewart (Great Britain) 35 points
Matthias Guillemette (Canada) 30
Sebastian Mora (Spain) 28
Michele Scartezzini (Italy) 22
William Perrett (Great Britain) 21

Women’s endurance - Top 5
Jennifer Valente (USA) 32 points
Anita Stenberg (Norway) 24
Lily Williams (USA) 24
Sarah van Dam (Canada) 24
Tania Calvo Barbero (Spain) 24

Men’s sprint - Top 5
Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) 37 points
Matthew Richardson (Australia) 35
Stefan Botticher (Germany) 30
Mikhail Iakovlev (Israel) 22
Santiago Morales Ramires (Colombia) 20

Women’s sprint - Top 5
Shanne Braspenninckx (Netherlands) 26 points
Olena Starikova (Ukraine) 24
Martha Bayona (Colombia 22
Lea Friedrich (Germany) 22
Hetty van de Wouw (Netherlands) 21

This is the final we were hoping for. The champion of champions against the challenger of challengers. Can Matthew Richardson cause an upset?

Lavreysen doesn’t look like he’s taking anything for granted. This is a repeat of the World Championship final in Paris a month ago, only this time it’s all on one race. Richardson stays right on Lavreysen’s wheel at the start, giving him nothing. He starts bouncing around, scaring Lavreysen a bit. At the bell he forces Lavreysen’s hand and the Dutchman is all over the track, very out of sorts. Richardson comes from behind, round the outside looking super aero. It was over before the line. Huge upset. Looks as if we have ourselves a male sprint competition too.

A big moment for Sophie Capewell in this final. She’s guaranteed big points but she wants more. Lea Friedrich has some making up to do. The crowd want Bayona to bring this home. And the Colombia clearly wants it too! Martha Bayona charges into the lead at the bell and hangs on to bring it home. She had Kelsey Mitchell closing fast but did more than enough to take the victory. Very very well earned. This year’s sprint competition already has a very different complexion to last. Viva Colombia!

Just one race left tonight.

It’s the women’s devil. And this race really is an evil one. The commissars make sure everyone is where they need to be - and no-one’s cranks are about to come off - and off they go.

No-one wants to be first out but someone has to be. And it’s Katie Archibald! That’s a massive shock. Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but dare I speculate that she might not have wanted to be in the leader’s jersey at the end of this evening? She won every one of these last year.

The race moves on at breakneck pace, and the next few riders out are Teutenberg Uchino and Andres. Emma Cumming of New Zealand is caught out at the bottom of the track, as the Spanish rider mugs her on the line. More like Emma GOing (Credit: Andy McGrath). Ireland’s Emma Kay is stuck at the bottom and squeezed out. Laura Kenny is at the back but with lots of room to move out so she sticks around for a bit longer. It’s too close to call on the next lap, so no-one goes, but Moran of Australia is called out next, followed by Rachele Barbieri.

Kenny seems to be playing with fire but she knows what she’s doing, don’t doubt that for a moment. Her luck has to run out and it’s a couple of riders later, as she goes out in 8th place. She’s definitely growing into this competition, though.

Another Brit, Sophie Lewis finishes in 7th followed by Michael Drummond, who takes us down to the final five. Two Canadians play two Americans and a Norwegian. The maple leafs go out one by one which surely means it’ll be either Lily Williams or Jennifer Valente who comes out on top? It won’t be, as it turns out. Williams doesn’t have the legs but Anita Stenberg definitely does. She outfoxes Valente to take a big victory.

The first semi final is Lacreysen against Rudyk and Quintero. They can push the World Champion as hard as they like, they’re not going to beat him. He always has something more and he shows it again. Into the final.

Who’s going to join him? Will it be Richardson? It shouldn’t be easy for the Australian - he’s got Botticher and Iakovlev to see off before he goes head to head with Lavreysen. With one and a half laps to go, the Israeli takes it on. 200m to the line and Richardson is chasing, but he chases very well and we get the final we wanted.

Heat one of the women’s keirin is Vece, Bayona, Grabosch, Van de Wouw, Gaxiola, and Casas Roigé. The runner-up in the sprint should do well, but how much did all that take out of her. The Dutchwoman has one more race in her legs than any of the others, and two more than several.

Vece is on the wheel of the derny and with three laps left it’s all out racing. The Colombian comes round first, but Grabosch comes round fast at the bell. It looked like Grabosch went too soon and faded fast on the final straight. Bayona led from the front and hung on, with Casas Roige delighting the home crowd as she goes through to the final in second place.

The second heat features Mathilde Gros, Kelsey Mitchell, Taky marie-divine Kouame, Sophie Capewell, Ursula Loz and Emma Finucane. Two French riders, two Brits, a Canadian and a Pole. Big names galore. Mitchell will want to bounce back and pick up a score.

A mechanical for one of the British riders means we have to have a restart. Finucane seems to have pulled the whole crank arm off. That’ll delay things somewhat as they try to put a new one on. Eventually they decide to carry on without her. That’s very unfortunate.

Down to five riders for five laps. Kouame starts on the wheel of the derny, with Mitchell not far off hers and Gros nearer the back. Sophie Capewell moves to the front first, and then Mitchell makes her move with two laps to go. She pulls out a gap of two lengths by the bell. Head down, Mitchell comes round and sails through. It’s Sophie Capewell who is named as the rider in second place thanks to a clever lunge at the end. As she advances to the final, that’s Capewell’s best ever result at the Track Champions League.

The final heat has Lea Friedrich up against Shanne Braspenninckx, Laurine van Riessen, Steffie van der Peet, Olena Starikova and Orla Walsh of Ireland. Should be Friedrich, especially after she got a bit more of a rest than normal in the earlier races. Which of the three riders will go with her? Surely one will?

Starikova hangs back a bit as the Dutch are in control at the front of this one. Friedrich comes round with a lap and a half to go. Is the German running out of gas at the end? A Dutch rider seemed to go past her but she was definitely fading. Officially the win goes to Braspenninckx with Friedrich in second.

Bradley Wiggins was impressed with the way Mark Stewart took the win in the scratch race and says he thinks the Scotsman could well take another victory in the elimination. I love this event, so much that I’ve begun taking lessons on the track so I can one day compete in an amateur event.

For anyone who’s never seen one of these before, you want to watch the back of the race. After every other lap the last rider to cross the line is eliminated from the race and it’s race over for them. That happens until there are only two riders left, at which point it’s first across the line who wins. It’s a brutal way of running a race.

The first lap is a warm-up after which is go go go.

There’s the bell and the first rider out is a Dutch rider, Roy Eefting. Big shock, he was one of the favourites for the whole thing. Next it’s Swede Gustav Johansson who is caught napping. Another bell and Bibic of Canada who we’re saying goodbye to. Donega of Italy is the rider to go in 14th place. Koontz of America is at the back and stays there. Until he doesn’t. Bye Grant. Bit of a surprise as Ollie Wood of Great Britain is knocked out 7th. Nicely positioned but nowhere to go. Adios Erik Haga and auf wiedersehen Mortiz Malcharek in 11th and 10th place. We’re down to the top ten.

Scaretezzini struggles and 9th is the best he can do. Eight remain until Rotem Tene is trapped and dispatched. No time to collect your thoughts, the bell tolls for thee. Thee being Claudio Imhof. That one was close. Some big names left.

Mora gets a cheer as he takes to the front and Buchli, the Dutch sprinter, is binned out the back. It might be Stewart here but he comes round and it’s Mora who was caught napping. Will Perrett gets a good result as he’s knocked out in 4th place. Three left, a Candadian, an American and a Brit. Stewart is the one who goes out in 3rd and it’s an all north American sprint. Gavin Hoover doesn’t have it, cannot contest the sprint, which goes to Matthias Guillemette of Canada. Pretty sure that should put Mark Stewart in the endurance leaders jersey with 35 points.

What kind of show will the women put on?/

Heat one is Nakano of Japan, Rudyk from Poland and Thailand’s Jai Angsuthasawit. Remember it’s win or go home in the heats. Hard to call this one, but I’m going with Rudyk. The pace starts very very high, with all three keen to be at the front. Rudyk leads at the bell and while Nakano is coming up on him at the line, the man from Japan runs out of track.

The second race of these heats is Iakovlev (Israel), Tjon en Fa (Suriname) and Awang from Malaysia. Personalities all three, Iakovlvev is, on paper at least, currently the fastest of the three. It won’t help that the rider from Suriname is riding on a borrowed bike, as his own is stuck in Madrid. The Israeli eases off from the top of the track, with Awang moving off fastest and first. Tjon en Fa is first to make the move with a lap and a half left, committing into the bell. Awang comes in with Iakovlev in his slipstream. It was close, looking like Awang to me, but the camera gives it to Iakovlev. He can be inconsistent and a bit error prone and he certainly made it hard for himself there. He’s through, though, that’s what matters.

Heat three has Quintero of Colombia against Jeffrey Hoogland (Netherlands) and Hamish Turnbull from Great Britain. As a kilo specialist, we know Hoogland likes a long sprint and he should have enough to beat these two, but Quintero is a very exciting prospect. Quintero goes very very long, in fact, and the other two have to chase it. Turnbull does the work to bring Hoogland back but they have too much to do and Quintero hangs on.

Heat four is up straight away and it’s Stefan Botticher of Germany against Indian sprinter Esow Esow and France’s Tom Derache. It’d be great to see the talented young rider from India do something here but he’s up against it. And by it, I mean the might and experience of Botticher and Derache. Derache looks to go long, Esow has the cadence, there’s argy bargy at the bell and that’s where Botticher takes it by the scruff. His experience pays off and he’s through to the semi-finals by several bike lengths.

The penultimate heat is Matthew Richardson vs Ponomaryov vs Cornish. Two Australians against a Kazakh rider. The two Aussies can’t both go through, unfortunately for them, so there’ll be no favours given here. Richardson is an easy favourite but he won’t have it easy, I don’t think. Ponomaryov is the one to start things off, winding things up as they’re all high up the track. As the bell rings Richardson comes round and gets himself a very nice gap, allowing him to take his foot off the gas. He didn’t have to work very hard for that one, which could help him a lot in the later rounds.

The final heat finds Helal of France against the great Harrie Lavreysen and Santiago Morales from Colombia. Lavreysen is going through here, I don’t think anyone would bet against that. How easy will it be for him, though? The answer is: not very. The world champion starts off very high with Helal staying low. Ramires heads out first and on the bell he’s doing all he can to hold the other two off. Lavreysen leaves it so late but hits the front with not a millisecond to spare. Was he just putting on a show for us?

Men's elimination up next.

It’s World Champion Mathilde Gros of France vs the less well-known but very much up-and-coming Hetty van de Wouw of the Netherlands.

We’re back to the traditional two-up format, but with a winner take all, rather than the best of three you’ll see in a world championships or an Olympics.

The start is far cagier than when there’s three riders on the track. We might not see much track standing but it’s a much more strategic affair. The Dutchwoman begins at the front, and they don’t get going until the second lap. Gros accelerates and goes high at the track as they take the bell. The Frenchwoman flies into turn three and is going so fast on the final straight. Van de Wouw did her best but that was very one-sided.

Men's sprint coming up next.

This is the one we’ve been waiting for. The first chance to see Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald, typically team-mates, go head to head. Kenny has been playing down her chances - including to me when I spoke to her yesterday evening, but class is permanent, right?

As we’ve already seen this evening, the scratch race is easily the most unpredictable event of the programme. The gun goes and they’re off. The two Brits swing up and head to the back of the track as the eighteen stretch out into a long line on the black. It’s a cagey, calm start with lots of looking around. It’s not slow but five laps in and there are no significant moves.

Archibald is the one to try one first, at the start of the seventh lap and the rest are right onto her. She’s not going to ride this one defensively, that’s for sure. No counters when they bring her back, though.

Halfway through the race and the bunch is still together, riding high on the track, as the pace slows.

A quarter of the race to go and it looks like we’re heading to a bunch sprint. They’re all thinking about position now, with no-one wanting to be too close to the front or too far back.

Michaela Drummond tries a late move but it doesn’t stick. Kenny moves to the front with a half acceleration. At the bell Archibald comes around and charges down the back straight. None of the others can do anything to beat her turn of speed. Maximum points in the first race for the reining champion. Tania Calvo finishes second, with Olympic omnium champion Jennifer Valente in third.

It's the women's sprint final next...

Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) Matthew Richardson (Australia) Stefan Botticher (Germany), Mikhail Iakovlev (Israel), Santiago Ramirez Morales (Colombia), Tom Cornish (Australia).

Can the Australians help each other out here? They’ll need to come up with something special to hurt Harrie Lavreysen. He looks to be in as strong form as ever.

Iakovlev starts in position one and the Australians are hunting in a pack, one and two going into the bell. Lavreysen begins to put in the power, makes one acceleration, then another on the shoulder of Richardson. The World Champion comes from fourth but it wasn’t easy for him. He was pushed all the way and it was a lot closer than we expected. Botticher wasn't in contention but rounds out the top three.

Interviewed immediately afterwards, on the rollers, by Chris Hoy, Lavreysen says: “I’m really happy with the win. It was a really hard final. I hope I can get some rest before the sprint.”

The women's scratch race is up next.

The first semi-final in the women’s sprint sees Hetty van de Wouv and Shanne Braspenninckx of the Netherlands against Ursula Loz of Poland. Will team tactics come into it? Braspennincxk plays with the height, makes her move from third but all she manages to do is box in the Polish rider. Van de Wouw kept her composure and her speed high, marching into the final.

The second semi-final sees Mathilde Gros against Olena Starikova and Daniela Gaxiola. Gros is expected to snuff out the threat posed by the experienced Starikova and surprise winner in round one, Gaxiola. Gros starts from the bottom, with Gaxiola taking it cautiously at the rear. Gros makes sure no-one takes her up the inside, and as they take the bell Starikova is giving the French rider work to do. She does it, though, timing her move to perfection, and showing she’s the world champion for a reason.

Final: Hetty van de Wouw vs Mathilde Gros. We think. The result of the first semi-final is listed as pending.

Next up is the men's keirin final. Already?

It’s endurance time! The lighter weight riders with the longer legs take to the track for twenty laps of the 250m track. Sebastian Mora won this race last year, can he repeat the performance? The overall winner Gavin Hoover is going to want to make an early mark of his own.

They start off all strung out, as you’d expect, with the riders taking short, mostly half-lap turns before swinging up the track. No-one wants to spend too much time on the front, or let the pace drop too much. The first attack comes after three laps from Roy Eefting (Netherlands) and Claudio Imhof (Switzerland) and they’re joined soon after by two more, including Will Perrett of Great Britain. They’re soon reeled in and the next attacks begin. We’re halfway through the race before we’ve even taken a breath.

It’s a strong move from Malcharek of Germany and Mark Stewark of Great Britain who can already see the back of the bunch. Are we going to see a lap taken? Surely not. Four laps to go and Mora goes out on his own, chased by Mark Stewart. The Britain accelerates into the bell, makes contact with the peloton and takes the victory. Huge surprise. What a start from Mark Stewart for the twenty points.

Scartezzini of Italy is given second spot, Mora 3rd place. Women's sprint semis next.

In the keirin at the Champions League it’s two riders through from each race.

Heat one sees a big statement from Stefan Botticher of Germany in control throughout the five lap race. Colombian Santiago Ramirez Morales heads with him into the final, letting his elbows do the talking.

The big name in heat two is Matthew Richardson. New to Champions League racing, he starts as a favourite, against the likes of Mateusz Rudyk and Rayan Helal (France), as well as his own friend and team-mate Thomas Cornish. Awang of Malaysia is the first to move after the derny departs, followed by Nagano of Japan with two laps to go. Surely too long for him? Into the wind comes Matthew Richardson who sails through to the final with Cornish a few bike lengths behind him. That looked very easy for the Australians.

Our final keirin heat features the world champion, Harrie Lavreysen and his team-mate Jeffrey Hoogland of the Netherlands, plus Iakovlev of Israel (formerly Russia)Ponomaryov (Kazakhstan), Derache of France and Great Britain’s Hamish Turnbull. It’ll be the Dutch pair, surely? Hoogland takes it up early, and has a gap as the others go wide. Lavreseyen keeps the position on his shoulder, coming round just after the bell as Hoogland fades and Iakovlev comes through. Brutal from the rainbow jersey.

From elsewhere, Kelsey Mitchell has been relegated from her sprint heat. Hetty van de Wouw of the Netherlands is the rider to go through.

Next up it's the first endurance race of the evening, the men's scratch race. Can Canada's Dylan Bibic do what he did in Saint Quentin, last month, when the 19 year-old Canadian mugged the field in the final lap to become world scratch champion?

The first race is Shanne Braspenninckx (Netherlands), Sophie Capewell (Great Britain), Helena Casas Roig (Spain). The Dutch rider leads it out and stays in charge through all three laps. The Spanish rider tries her best to come back but it’s easy for Braspenninckx.

Race two is Martha Bayona (Colombia), Laurine van Rieessen (Netherlands) and Olena Starikova (Ukraine). Starikova goes first this time, looking behind her, one shoulder then the other, at her opponents. The Dutch rider begins to wind it up, then pushes onto Starikova’s shoulder. Out of the saddle is Starikova and brings it home with ease.

Race three sees Kelsey Mitchell of Canada up against Hetty Van de Wouw (Netherlands) and Orla Walsh of Ireland. Mitchell is the firm favourite. Will it be a third walk in the park in a row? Mitchell starts off at the back, leaving a bit of a gap before heading up the track, winding it up from wide. She dives down into the second lap, hits the bell in front and coasts into the semi-final. She has time to ease up, practically beginning her recovery early.

Heat 4 is Miriam Vece (Italy), Pauline Grabosch (Germany), Luz daniela Gonzalez (Mexico). Grabosch, the Germany team sprint gold medalist the likely winner, you’d say? Vece is a strong rider, but probably not strong enough to come through this one. Grabosch wearing silver gloves starts at the bottom of the track and at the front. She’s not missing a trick, watching to make sure they don’t take her by surprise. The Mexican woman comes round very very in the end and we have our first surprise result of the night. She takes it on the lunge and by the narrowest of margins.

Into heat 5 and the guns only get bigger. Mathilde Gros (France), Steffie van der Peet (Netherlands), Emma Finucane (Great Britain) are our three and there’s going to be no surprises here, mark my words. Emma Finucane is not even 20 years old yet, and while she has bags of potential, this series will be more about gaining experience. Gros in the rainbow jersey, won last month on her home track, starts in the middle of the trio, and she lets Finucane go out on the cote d’azur. Van der Peet makes a move early but Gros isn’t settling for that, coming round her with two laps left. They’re bunched together but the World Champion is in complete control as she marches into the semis.

The final heat finds Lea Friedrich (Germany) take on Taky marie-divine Kouame (France) and Urszula Los (Poland). Kouame is a very exciting young talent, and another World Champion, in the 500m time trial. Can she get the best of multiple rainbow jersey winner Lea Friedrich, though? Los is a good rider too. Kwame takes up position one, but it’s Friedrich who gets things moving. Kwame doesn’t let her come round easily, Friedrich tries to come round the outside but it’s too far for her and Los is the fastest in the middle of the trio. Two very big names knocked out already! That one was feisty.

It’s been so long since we last saw a three-up sprint match that I had completely forgotten they were a thing. It’s a whole different wheel game when you’ve got two riders to keep an eye on behind you, or one behind and one in front, or two ahead. You get the idea.

Anyway, that’s for the both the first round and semi-finals. The opening bouts are made up of six races from which the six winners go, then the semi-finals will produce a two-rider final which will revert to the more familiar two-up format.

Last time no-one came close to dethroning Harrie Lavreysen on the men’s side, or Emma Hinze on the women’s, but I have a feeling they’re going to be much closer run things this year.

All local times. If you're reading this in the UK, take off an hour.

It's the opening night of racing in the second series of the UCI Track Champions League, live from Velòdrom Illes Balears de Palma. Mallorca is an all-year round cycling Mecca and this brand new event, taking place on the island, will be the centre of the cycling world for the next three hours. Our attention will be evenly divided between the muscle-bound sprinters and the lean, mean endurance machines, making up an all-star line-up of 72 track stars - 36 men and 36 women - who will be busting the boards and giving it everything they’ve got.

We're roughly fifteen minutes away from the first event of the night, round one of the women's sprint competition. We don't have Emma Hinze, who won all four nights of the sprint, defending her title, which means we're guaranteed a new champion. Who will take over from her at the top?

British cycling stars Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald are among the riders set to tear up the velodrome at the 2022 UCI Track Champions League.

Archibald returns to defend her title from the inaugural series of the innovative and trailblazing event, and this time around she will be joined by her good friend and former GB team-mate Kenny and a wave of new talent making their debuts.

Kenny will be joining current champion Archibald, who continues her return to the track following time out from racing in 2022, with the pair being good friends and former team-mates for Great Britain.

When her participation was confirmed, Kenny said: “I’m really looking forward to competing in my first UCI Track Champions League.

"I felt like a fan when I was watching it last season and every round was packed with exciting and spectacular racing.

“The new format and high-tech presentation that the series brings has taken track cycling to a whole new level and I can’t wait to be part of it.”

Other new talents joining the legendary British duo on the women’s roster are reigning UCI world and Olympic champion Jennifer Valente (USA), two-time European champion Rachele Barbieri (Italy), current UCI World Scratch champion Martina Fidanza (Italy), and multiple Junior UCI world champion Tsuyaka Uchino (Japan). reigning European Scratch champion Anita Stenberg (Norway) is also returning to fight for the title after missing out in 2021.

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After a great debut season, the UCI Track Champions League is back for season two, with Laura Kenny joining the party. You can watch it all live and on demand on discovery+. We will have extensive coverage across eurosport.com and the first race is in Mallorca on Saturday Nov 12, with the action starting at 5:30pm UK time.