The Germans and Dutch shine at UCI Track Cycling Worlds in Roubaix

Four more titles were awarded on the penultimate day of the 2021 Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Roubaix (France): rainbow jerseys were up for grabs in the women's 500m time trial, Madison and individual pursuit, while the men battled all day long in the Omnium.

Women’s 500m time trial: Friedrich holds off the Russians

Russia’s fast wheels impressed early on the fourth day of competition in the Jean-Stablinski Velodrome with three riders qualifying for the final of the 500m time trial: Anastasiia Voinova, winner of the event in 2015 and 2016, set the fastest time (33.183sec) among the 14 participants, and was joined by Daria Shmeleva (3rd, +0.186) and Yana Tyshchenko (7th, +0.477). The German stars of the sprint, Lea Sophie Friedrich and Pauline Grabosch were also among the eight fastest women, with their compatriot Alessa-Catriona Pröpster, Italy’s Miriam Vece and Colombia’s Martha Bayona Pineda.

The Russian contenders were even faster in the evening - Voinova clocked a time of 33.163, only one thousandth of a second ahead of Shmeleva (winner in 2017 and 2019)! But the Germans also upped the tempo with Friedrich taking gold in 33.057 (54.451km/h) while Grabosch very narrowly missed out on the podium (33.177).

At 21 years old, Friedrich retains the rainbow jersey she took last year in the same event in Berlin 2020. She also claimed her third medal in Roubaix, after her victory with Grabosch and Hinze in the team sprint and silver in the individual sprint. She has the opportunity to add more success on Sunday in the keirin, a discipline she dominated just a couple of weeks ago at the European Championships.

Women’s Madison: Wild and Pieters cement their legend

Among the most intense formats of racing on the track, the Madison led to both an exhilarating and historic event in the ‘Stab’. The Dutch duo of Amy Pieters and Kirsten Wild, already UCI World Champions in 2019 and 2020, dominated the opening sprint to score the first 5 points. But France (Clara Copponi and Marie Le Net) and Great Britain (Katie Archibald and Neah Evans) quickly challenged their lead while the Danes (Amalie Dideriksen and Julie Leth) went for unsuccessful moves.

Pieters and Wild proved to be the most consistent across the 120 laps, scoring 35 points to take their third rainbow jersey together. A week after her 39th birthday, Wild is now set to retire with – at least – nine UCI World Champion titles, in the Madison and also the Scratch Race (2015, 2018, 2020), the points race (2018) and the Omnium (2018, 2019). She has one last opportunity to make it 10 on Sunday, in the points race.

Copponi and Le Net took silver for France (30 points), as they did in Berlin 2020. Great Britain’s 2 points in the final sprint meant they could resist Italy (Letizia Paternoster and Rachele Barbieri) for the bronze medal (24 vs 23 points).

Women’s individual pursuit: Brennauer leads the German 1-2-3

Germany’s riders have imposed their collective strength all year long in the team pursuit, and they showed further dominance in the qualifying round of the individual event. Lisa Brennauer, Franziska Brausse and Mieke Kröger (winners of the Olympic, European and UCI World titles this year in the team event, with a new world record) set the three best times in the early afternoon.

Brennauer led the way (3:17.572) as she had already beaten the European record that meant she took silver in the 2020 UCI World Championships behind USA’s Chloe Dygert, who was not participating in Roubaix. Martina Alzini, a silver medallist with Italy in the team pursuit, qualified for the final for bronze with the fourth best time.

Kröger overtook Alzini after 2,500m to claim the third spot on the podium. And Brennauer didn’t leave much more hope for Brausse. The German powerhouse takes another gold medal at the end of an impressive year that saw her shine on all fronts.

Men’s Omnium: Hayter does it, Archibald style

Was he inspired by his compatriot Katie Archibald’s absolute dominance in the women’s Omnium? Or just on an incredible roll? Ethan Hayter, winner of the individual time trial at the British National Championships on the road ten days ago, had an impressive start in the Omnium.

The versatile British Champion (also a silver medallist in the Madison at the Olympic Games, and a bronze medallist this week in the team pursuit) dominated his qualifying heat and won the first two main events, in the afternoon: the Scratch Race, ahead of the 2021 UCI World Champion of the discipline Donavan Grondin (FRA), and the tempo race.

Action resumed in the evening with the elimination, and Hayter kept riding at the front, taking 4th place behind New Zealand’s Aaron Gate (winner of the Omnium in the 2013 UCI World Championships), Grondin and Matias Malmberg (DEN). Ahead of the final event, the points race, Hayter led the standings with 114 points, ahead of Gate (108), Portugal’s Iuri Leitão (98), Malmberg (94) and Grondin (90).

Hayter was dominant again in the points race, bringing his total up to 180 points to take his first individual rainbow jersey and the second for Great Britain this week, after Archibald. Gate took silver with 124 points and Elia Viviani made a sprint for bronze in the final lap (121 pts).

Five rainbow jerseys are still up for grabs on Sunday, the final day of competition of the 2021 Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Championships. The action will come thick and fast in the afternoon with the first medals awarded in the women’s points race, before the final of the men’s individual sprint, the men’s Madison, the women’s keirin and the men’s elimination to wrap up an intense five days of racing in Roubaix.