The 2024 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships get under way on 20 March in Rio de Janeiro, six years after they were last held in the Brazilian city and eight years after the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Many of the athletes competing in Rio next week come off their respective National and Continental Championships.
The Rio rendezvous will be a chance to measure up against the full international field in this Paralympic year: the para-cycling track events at the Paris 2024 Games in France will take place from 29 August to 1st September.
Another year of highlights
After the hugely successful 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships - where the track and para-cycling track events took place side by side at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow, Scotland United Kingdom) -, 2024 is another important year for the athletes.
Many of those who also compete on the road, are also travelling to the different rounds of the 2024 UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, which got under way this season in Adelaide, Australia, where the host nation showed its strength. Australia will be present in Rio with several defending UCI World Champions and reigning Paralympic Champions and medallists.
Rio 2016 Paralympic memories
The velodrome in Rio’s Barra Olympic and Paralympic Park is a 250m Siberian pine track, 7.2m wide, with banking between 12 degrees on the straights and 42 degrees in the turns.
Of the 83 nations competing at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, China topped the table way ahead of Great Britain and Ukraine, who pipped the USA for third position. Brazil recorded a creditable 8th overall with 14 golds – a fact that lives long in the local memory!
Winners from Rio 2016 who are returning to Brazil include the Netherlands’ Tristan Bangma, (B 1km time trial), Great Britain’s Kadeena Cox (C4-5 500 time trial) and Australian David Nicholas (C3 individual pursuit).
Brazilians and British out in force
Some 215 riders (plus tandem pilots) representing 39 countries are registered for next week’s event, including a roster of 27 Brazilians competing in their home UCI Worlds. Only Great Britain (29) has a bigger delegation, with other large teams coming from France and the USA (18 athletes each), Australia and Italy (13 athletes each), and Colombia and Malaysia (12 athletes each).
The home continent is represented by delegations from several South, Central and North American and Caribbean nations: Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Canada and the USA.
The first medals will be awarded on the opening day of competition on Wednesday 20 March, in the Men’s and Women’s B 750m tandem team sprint, the WC5, WC4 and WC3 500m time trials, and the WC2, WC1, MC2 and MC1 3km individual pursuit.
The programme will continue over the following five days with sprint and endurance racing through to Sunday 24 March. The 2024 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships will close with exhibitions of the dramatic elimination race, being held as a trial event this year.
Para-cycling sport classes for para-cycling track
C – Cycle: conventional bike with adaptations if necessary
B – Tandem: for visually impaired athletes with sighted pilot
Group C is divided into different sport classes, with the lower the number indicating a higher level of impairment.