2022 Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup: season kick-off in Glasgow

The three-round 2022 Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup begins next week in the Scottish city of Glasgow, on Katie Archibald’s home turf, before heading to Milton (Canada) and Cali (Colombia) as the stars of the discipline gear up for the 2022 Tissot UCI Track World Championships.

It is the second edition of the UCI Track Nations Cup, which punctuates the season ahead of the October UCI Worlds as part of the reorganisation of top level track competitions that also saw the birth of the UCI Track Champions League last year.

In 2021, the series included three rounds: in Hong Kong, Saint Petersburg (Russia) and Cali. Colombia dominated the overall standings thanks notably to the performances of Martha Bayona (best performer of the series in the 500m, keirin and sprint), Santiago Ramírez and Kevin Quintero.

Since then, the fastest and most resilient track cyclists lit more fireworks at the discipline’s UCI World Championships and the inaugural UCI Track Champions League at the end of the year. They return to global competition this month, with the first round of the UCI Track Nations Cup to be held in Glasgow (Great Britain, April 21-24). The series will then cross the Atlantic for a second leg in Milton (May 12-15) before the final battles are settled in Cali’s Velódromo Alcides Nieto Patiño (July 7-10).

In each event, the stars of track cycling will vie for singular victories and for cumulated points that will be essential to their National Federations’ qualification quotas for the UCI Track World Championships and, in the longer term, the Olympic Games, as a new cycle begins towards Paris 2024.

A taste of 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships

The four days of competition in Glasgow next week will see a star studded line-up from British Cycling challenged by big names coming from countries across all continents to compete on the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, which will also host the track and para-cycling track events at next year’s inaugural UCI Cycling World Championships.

“We’re gonna have athletes like Katie Archibald, Jack Carlin, who are home favourites, who’ve won medals at Olympics and Worlds before, and looking to maintain that momentum heading into the next Olympic cycle and of course next year the UCI World Championships here in 2023,” Sir Chris Hoy announced. "It’s not long until the next Olympics. These athletes are already flat out in their pursuit of their next Olympic gold medal.”

Archibald’s “great memories”

The British selection is spectacularly led by Katie Archibald and Laura Kenny, the duo who dominated the Madison in the Izu Velodrome at the Olympic Games (among many other decorations in their stellar careers).

“I’ve got so many great memories of riding and competing in Glasgow and it’s always brilliant to ride in front of family and friends, particularly after the challenges that Covid has created for sport over the past couple of years”, Archibald celebrates. Winner of the female endurance ranking in the 2021 UCI Track Champions League, she’s joined in Glasgow by the Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen (winner of the male sprint standings) and USA’s Gavin Hoover (male endurance winner).

Jack Carlin and Neah Evans are the other two Scottish stars in a selection that sees Matt Walls return to track competition for the first time since his Olympic Games gold medal in the Omnium. The 23-year-old rider from Manchester will head to Scotland from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, after participating in the Presidential Cycling Tour of Türkiye with his road team Bora-Hansgrohe.

Ganna, Kopecky… global stars from all horizons

Kelland O’Brien (two-time UCI World Champion in the team pursuit) is set to take on a similar trip from Turkey to Scotland, while his Australian compatriots and Team BikeExchange-Jayco partners Georgia Baker and Ruby Roseman-Gannon are currently tackling the Northern Classics before returning to the velodromes.

The same goes for other contenders chasing glory in Glasgow, including Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky, a UCI World Champion on the track and a rising star on the roads of the UCI Women’s WorldTour, and the reigning UCI Road World Champion Elisa Balsamo, leader of the Italian generation. In the ranks of the Squadra Azzurra, she’s notably joined by Filippo Ganna and Elia Viviani, superstars both in the velodromes and on the roads.

These versatile champions will never be too far away from their road bikes. But the track season is about to return in full swing and they can’t miss the opening party in Glasgow!