2023 Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup: Jakarta to set a truly international scene

Stars of the velodromes are heading to Jakarta (Indonesia) for the first round of the 2023 Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup, a three-event series taking place on three continents.

After Jakarta (23-26 February), they will travel to Africa for a round in Cairo (Egypt, 14-17 March) then North America for the final round in Milton (Canada, 20-23 April).

At stake at the Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup will be precious qualification points for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and for this year’s UCI Track World Championships, part of the inaugural UCI Cycling World Championships being held in Glasgow and across Scotland (Great Britain) in August, Throughout the three rounds, nations and qualified UCI Track Teams will also compete to succeed Colombia (overall winners of the first edition of the Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup in 2021) and the 2022 defending champions Italy.

Action-packed programme

Each round will offer the same programme of events for men and women: keirin, individual sprint, team sprint, Madison, Omnium, team pursuit and elimination.

The first evening will be dedicated to qualifying rounds of the team pursuit. Intensity will increase from the second day of competition with the first finals, then a packed schedule each day until the women’s points race wraps up the Omnium at the conclusion of the fourth evening.

Jakarta awaits great champions

Indonesia will field a delegation of 18 riders, who will join a star-studded line-up from the world over. Australia’s Matthew Richardson and Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen are ready to reignite the battles that electrified the sprints of the 2022 UCI Track Champions League.

After years of dominance from the Oranje powerhouse (11-time UCI World Champion and two-time Olympic Champion), the Aussie youngster found ways to tame him in the UCI Track Champions League. Can Richardson build on his first UCI World Champion title (the team sprint in 2022) to claim more glory?

Freshly crowned three times at the UEC European Championships (keirin, individual sprint and team sprint), Lavreysen is ready for battle.

Women sprinters should also set the velodromes alight: “Everyone is gonna bring their A game,” says Canada’s Kelsey Mitchell, reigning Olympic Champion in the individual sprint. Mitchell expects strong opposition from the German sprinters (Lea Sophie Friedrich, Pauline Grabosch, Emma Hinze). She will also face off reigning UCI World Champion in the sprint, Mathilde Gros, leading some of the French heroines of the 2022 UCI Track World Championships (Taky Marie-Divine Kouamé, Clara Copponi, Valentine Fortin, Victoire Berteau, Marion Borras…).

Among the endurance experts, Great Britain’s Katie Archibald is ready to show her class again after she reached a new iconic landmark with a 20th Continental title in the UEC European Championships. 2023 is a very special year for the Scottish star, who hails from the suburbs of Glasgow, where the track events of the UCI Cycling World Championships will take place at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.