Katie Archbald shines, Harrie Lavreysen v Matthew Richardson: Eight ways the UCI Track Champions League won in 2023
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Published 31/12/2023 at 07:36 GMT
At three years old, the UCI Track Champions League is no longer the new kid on the block, and in 2023 it really settled into its groove. As ever it was the racing and the riders themselves that delivered four weekends of flat out entertainment. From Katie Archibald's shining personality, to the rise of a new Irish track star, Nick Christian offers eight events that made this year's series.
UCL Track Champions League: Highlights from Grand Finale in London
At three years old, the UCI Track Champions League is no longer the new kid on the block, and in 2023 it really settled into its groove.
Though a few formatting tweaks were made here and there, it was mostly a case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
And as ever it was the racing and the riders themselves that delivered four weekends of flat out entertainment. Names new and old gave it their all in service to the highest level of track cycling in the world, and while there were more special moments than we could count, here are eight that stood out.
1. Everybody loves Katie
No rider is synonymous with the Track Champions League like Katie Archibald, winner of this year's endurance title. Its only true irreplaceable, the British star has been a loud advocate for the series since its inception, always turning up year on year with form that demonstrates her respect for the competition is more than just talk.
But, almost as much as her performances on the track, what endears Archibald to audiences around the world is her ability to articulate the content of the mind of a supreme athlete. Week on week at the Champions League, the Scottish rider gave fascinating interviews in which she explained the sensations she experienced during a race, and the thought processes that lead to her on-track decisions.
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Archibald makes it three from three with elimination success
Win or lose Archibald brings her A game to the post-race discussion and in 2023 - perhaps more than any previous year - she was a marked woman in the scratch, which created opportunities for other riders. It also made the women’s endurance classification more competitive than it otherwise might have been.
In the elimination, though, Archibald has no equal. With only one defeat in five, she was almost unstoppable, roaring away to a grandstand finish on all but one occasion.
2. Lavreysen v Richardson: Part Deux
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'That was spectacular!' - Richardson pips Lavreysen to sprint win
If Archibald is the solo star of the Track Champions League, then these two heavyweight sprinters - Harrie Lavreysen and Matthew Richardson - are its headline rivalry.
This year, due to quirks of the qualification setup, audiences were not treated to quite as many head-to-head battles between the fastest men on two wheels. Nor, for the same reason, were we treated to a nailbiting, down to the wire finale.
That only meant when the two finally did go eyeball to eyeball, in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, it was the most anticipated match-up of the series. Richardson won that one - a shot across the bows on the Olympic track, less than a year before Paris 2024 - and then the last one in London to make it 2-1 to the Australian.
They might have basically been dead rubbers in terms of the general classification, but Lavreysen will now know - if he didn’t previously - that his Olympic defence is far from a foregone conclusion.
3. Olympic dreams, so hard to beat
Which brings us to the elephant in the room. If the general classification provides the league with four separate plots, the countdown to Paris provided this year's series with an intriguing additional dimension.
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'Olympics define our careers' - Archibald aims for more success after Track Champions League win
Everyone approached it differently. For some, such as the German and Dutch women - it meant stepping back for a season; for others like Lavreysen and Richardson, as well as world champions Ellesse Andrews and Emma Finucane, and the ever-present Archibald, the TCL offered the opportunity to get some valuable high-level racing in their legs.
It is too early to read much into results and performances - true for the riders who shone brightly as much as those whose bulb was not quite as warm. Even if we may not be able to predict around whose necks the gold medals will be placed next summer, the TCL allowed us to better familiarise ourselves with a number of those who will be part of the conversation.
4. The battle between Great Britain and Canada
Track cycling tends to be more about big love than big beefs, but the stars of the 2023 Track Champions League were not always quite as warm and cuddly as we have come to expect. One national rivalry in particular emerged to the surprise of many.
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'I’m getting better and better' – Bibic in confident mood after perfect night
The catalyst was Dylan Bibic’s chest-puffing responses to his own successes in Mallorca, Berlin and then Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. The 20-year-old’s peacocking not only made him something of a pantomime villain but drew a target on his back the size of the 250m ovals.
Will Tidball was the man least impressed of all. But it was on the track that Tidball - along with compatriot Mark Stewart - really did the talking.
Having predicted that Bibic would struggle in London, both men took wins to peg back the overall leader. Despite not being enough to deny Bibic the overall title, they also perhaps helped take him down a peg or two.
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'Neck and neck on the line!' - Tidball triumphs on photo finish in elimination
5. The emergence of Ireland’s new cycling star
You wouldn’t know from her results, but Lara Gillespie is no track specialist. Due to Ireland not maintaining - for the moment - its own indoor velodrome, Gillespie developed first and foremost as a roadie, only enjoying infrequent stints on a banked oval.
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Gillespie wins women's elimination race in London
Yet on her Track Champions League debut she delivered like she’d been doing it all her life, learning as she went, rapidly acquiring the skills needed to compete at the elite level. After some consistent mid-field results in the opening rounds, Gillespie began to grasp the nettle and lead from the front in the later weeks.
It all came to fruition in the final races in London. First, in the scratch, she scored her highest placing of the series, second, after making a mighty effort to bridge across to a front duo. Then, in the final women’s endurance event of the series, she proved herself to have the most stamina of anyone, and plenty of power to boot.
After inflicting on Katie Archibald only her third TCL KO, Gillespie out sprinted Anita Stenberg to take the victory. Emerald islanders: watch out for this young jewel.
6. Introducing Eiya Hashimoto
Eiya Hashimoto might have ended his Track Champions League campaign with a bit of a whimper, but he began it with nothing short of a bang.
Following his scratch race victory in week 1 in Mallorca, Hashimoto readily admitted that he had benefited from being at once a TCL newbie and one of the lesser knowns among the field - therefore finding it easier to slip away from the pack.
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Hashimoto wins chaotic first final of Track Champions League 2023
That maiden win brought with it the first leader’s jersey of the competition, and thrust the Japanese rider into the spotlight, where he demonstrated that it’s the personalities of the stars that really make the Track Champions League special.
Hashimoto kept himself in the spotlight thanks to a pair of solid results in Berlin, before fading in the second half of the competition. He didn’t stop smiling though, and we’re already looking forward to welcoming him back next year.
7. Propster blazes off the bench
Germany may not be exactly spoiled for road cycling supremos in the current era, but when it comes to the track - specifically female sprinters - theirs is a nation without equal.
By virtue of the countless medals, major titles and rainbow jerseys won between them, the names Emma Hinze, Lea Sophie-Friedrich and Pauline Grabosch rather roll off the tongue. In 2023, however, the big three were opting out of the TCL, in service to their Olympic ambitions. It was up to super sub Alessa-Catriona Propster to step up, and show what she could do.
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Impressive Propster takes women's sprint victory over Britain's Marchant
And boy did she.
Mallorca is known for being a popular destination for German holiday makers, which might go some way to explaining why the rider from Hechingen took so well to the Palma boards, where she beat world champion Emma Finucane to grab the first leader’s jersey of the women’s sprint series.
Two more victories came her way in Saint-Quentin and London, enough to carry her to a close second place behind Ellesse Andrews.
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Getting to know German cyclist Alessa-Catriona Propster
The 2024 Olympic places may be sewn up by the big German three but for the next cycle, Propster is sure to be breathing down their necks.
8. Bayona and Quintero Santiago bring their A games to London
After the final round of TCL racing, many were left wondering what might have been had either - or both - of the two Colombian sprinters been able to race the full five rounds.
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'The keirin belongs to the world champion!' - Quintero triumphant in London
As it was, both Kevin Quintero Santiago and Martha Bayona missed the second weekend of TCL action in Berlin, returning to compete in the PanAm games in Chile instead. That meant their maximum possible individual points totals were reduced by 40, effectively eliminating them from overall contention.
Counterfactuals are difficult to construct with any confidence - it may have been that neither would have been up there at the business end of the series anyway. What we can be sure of is that Bayona and Quintero were two of the most exciting athletes of the entire competition, and both delivered in front of the London crowd.
Those two thrilling victories, both of which came from the keirin, interrupted a run of wins shared by the dominant riders in each discipline. They showed that racing savvy, skills and strategy can overcome a superior power advantage. There’s always more to the TCL than meets the eye.
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