Germany’s rising stars rule the UCI Junior Track World Championships

The best Junior riders from around the planet took the Sylvan Adams velodrome by storm to claim medals and the prestigious rainbow jerseys in the 2022 UCI Junior Track World Championships, held in Tel Aviv (Israel) from 23 to 27 August.

Cyclists from 18 nations took medals home in a truly global event, but it was the Germans who headed the medal table with four titles and a total of 12 podium spots from the 22 events contested.

Four of Germany’s medals (three gold and one silver) went to Clara Schneider. On Tuesday, she won the team sprint with Stella Müller and Lara-Sophie Jäger. The next day, she won every single race of the individual sprint before dominating South Korea’s Chaeyeon Kim in the final.

Schneider was still on flying form on Saturday to take gold in the keirin, ahead of another Korean sprinter, Doye Kim. The previous day, Chaeyeon had gotten the best of Schneider, where the German had to settle for 2nd in the 500m time trial.

Bruno Kessler completed the German golden tally, narrowly winning the men’s points race just ahead of Italy’s Dario Belletta (72 points against 70).

Glory for Bäckstedt and the Frenchwomen

Among riders to light fireworks in Tel Aviv was Zoe Bäckstedt. Hailing from a family of great cyclists, the young British rising star is a special talent, as she proved again in Israel.

Partnering with Grace Lister, the Welsh rider dominated the Madison to claim a third rainbow jersey in her young career, a month before her 18th birthday.

What makes Bäckstedt so special is that her previous UCI Junior World Champion titles were conquered on the road, last year in Flanders (Belgium), and in cyclo-cross, at the beginning of the year, in Fayetteville (USA). Bäckstedt is already a trainee with the UCI Women’s WorldTeam EF Education-Tibco-SVB and she appears to have everything it takes to set the world of cycling on fire.

Lister had already claimed a medal earlier in this edition of the UCI Worlds, finishing third in the Omnium, an event that saw France’s Aurore Pernollet power to the gold medal. The “Bleus” took two more titles, both in the women’s events.

Aurore Pernollet successfully teamed up with Clémence Chéreau, Lara Lallemant and Heïdi Gaugain to dominate the team pursuit. The latter, who was born without a left forearm, also outplayed her rivals in the points race. The French tally in Tel Aviv was completed by Lallemant’s bronze medal in the individual pursuit.

Predomo and Schneider mean speed

Italy’s Mattia Predomo took two gold medals, proving to be the fastest man in Tel Aviv with UCI Junior Track World Champion titles in the keirin and the individual sprint. He also claimed a silver medal in the 1km time trial behind Czech Republic’s Matěj Hytych.

His compatriots dominated the women’s individual pursuit, thanks to Federica Venturelli’s resistance, and the men’s team pursuit, with the collective performance achieved by Renato Favero, Alessio Delle Vedove, Luca Giaimi and Matteo Fiorin (as well as Andrea Raccagni Noviero in the qualifyings), as they broke the 4-minute barrier (3:58.853).

The other UCI Junior Track World Champion men’s titles went to Australia (Dylan Stanton, Maxwell Liebeknecht and Ryan Elliott) in the team sprint, Carson Mattern (CAN) in the individual pursuit and Omnium, Dominik Ratajczak (POL) in the scratch race, Czech Republic (Milan Kladec and Radovan Štec) in the Madison and Zak Erzen (SLO) in the elimination race. Erzen also took bronze in the scratch race, bringing Slovenia their first ever medals in the history of the UCI Junior Track World Championships (held since 1975).

In the women’s competitions, Poland’s Maja Tracka (scratch) and Czech Republic’s Barbora Němcová (elimination) completed the list of winners.