Who to watch and what to watch out for on the last weekend of the UCI Track Champions League in London

It's coming down to the wire. With two nights of racing left in the UCI Track Champions League, while each competition has taken shape, everything is still up for grabs and (almost) anyone can win them. Eurosport picks out the key battles that will determine the destinations of the newest, most prestigious prize in track cycling.

Katie Archibald is the proverbial unstoppable force. She is behind by only a single point, which means the only reason she is not in the teal skinsuit already is that most unlikely of null points scored in the elimination in Mallorca. Since then Archibald has finished first in three races and no lower than second in any. Over the four remaining races it’s hard to imagine she won’t net that extra point she needs to displace the current leader except…

Jennifer Valente is the so-called unstoppable force. The American has led the women’s endurance standings since round 1, thanks to six solid (albeit unspectacular) performances, which have seen her finish no lower than third in a single race. You can’t sniff at consistency when it works. No, she hasn’t successfully broken the metaphorical tape yet, but she also hasn’t needed to. With Katie Archibald coming for her, she may need to in London.

One of these things is inevitable. But which?

The Lee Valley Velodrome is begging to be renamed and it’s a one rider race as to who it should pay tribute to. Laura Kenny, who is the Great Briton born closest to it, made her name on this track in 2012. She is open about her love for it, and for riding in front of the cycling fans that track cyclists from all over say are among the best in the world.

The reason she signed up for the track champions league in the first place was because it offered the opportunity to ride in London. You suspect that she didn’t drop out entirely with illness to ensure that she could. What form she will find herself in, even she probably doesn’t know, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if she can get the home fans stamping their feet once again?

Ollie Wood is about as down-to-earth a rider as there is. Interviewed last Saturday in Paris, the 27 year-old, who has won a race on each of the last weekends, said his hopes for the four to come in London were to take one more. That ambition is well within the realm of the realistic, and may be setting his sights a little low. His results in Berlin and Paris saw him rise to fifth place in the men’s endurance league, just twenty points off the top with a grand total of 80 on offer. Speaking of which…

The men’s endurance competition has been the most fiercely contested of any this year. No rider has held the jersey for more than one weekend, with Mark Stewart taking it first, before passing it to Mathias Guillemette, who himself handed it over to Claudio Imhof in France.

Going into the last two rounds, all three of those are still very much in contention, with a couple of others still in the mix as well. Imhof leads by six from the Canadian, who is three ahead of Spanish veteran Sebastian Mora. Stewart is twelve off top spot, and one big result or four consistent performances could be enough to see the Scot crowned the champion. The stats boffins are going to be busy this weekend, that’s for sure.

The women’s sprint competition has arguably been the most intriguing of the four leagues running for the last month. And track sprinting isn’t supposed to provoke intrigue, it’s meant to be about blunt force trauma. But the 2022 TCL has been subtle, complex, layered.

No-one has had it easy, or all their own way. Every weekend has delivered surprises and upsets; there’s no reason to imagine the two final rounds in London will be any different. Mathilde Gros should maintain winning ways in the sprint, but she has never looked unbeatable - it only takes one slip in concentration to see the French house of cards come tumbling down.

Of the other riders who realistically remain in the running for the overall title, Martha Bayona has been just one of the Colombians who have delighted the crowds and put the old world sprinting nations on their guard. The Olympic sprint champion, Kelsey Mitchell, has had her ups and downs, which is why she finds herself in third place. The Netherlands’ Shanne Braspennincx, despite her best result being third in the Berlin keirin, is just 14 points off the top. A victory of any kind from fifth place Olena Starikova, even if it doesn’t carry her into the leader’s jersey, will prove almost as popular as one from a British rider. Expect to see more than a few Ukraine flags on show tonight.

We are all set up for a showdown of epic proportions, which will take place across a total of 26 (we did the maths) nasty, brutal, short races. If you think you know what’s going to happen, no you do not.

The men’s sprint might have been the competition featuring the fewest contenders, but that hasn’t made it less exciting. If anything, we have seen the true birth of what has the potential to be the great track cycling rivalry for a good few years to come - at least until the Paris Olympics which starts in 602 days' time. (It’s also worth reminding followers that a grand total of two, is twice as many title contenders than we had last year.)

Harrie Lavreysen and Matthew Richardson have been like world class prize fighters in the ring every weekend. Each has landed blows on the other, but neither has been able to knock his man to the canvas. In Mallorca and Berlin, Lavreysen had the better of Richardson in the keirin, while Richardson took two from two in sprint head-to-heads - arguably the one that matters more.

In the Saint-Quentin velodrome, which will host the Paris Olympics track cycling, Lavreysen finally got the better of his rival in the sprint. It looked like that might be that, only for Richardson to come roaring back in the keirin. Just two points will separate them when they hit the boards of London this evening, and no man can afford to make a mistake.

Who would bet against Lavreysen keeping the jersey for the next two nights? On the other hand, who would mind if it changed hands, at least once?

- - -

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 also have extensive coverage across eurosport.com.