Italian, German and Dutch rainbows launch the UCI Track Cycling Worlds

The 2021 Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Championships began on Wednesday in the Jean-Stablinski Velodrome, in Roubaix (France), with three titles awarded: in the women’s Scratch Race and the men's and women's team sprints.

Women’s Scratch Race: Fidanza strikes first

The first rainbow jersey of the 2021 UCI Track Cycling World Championships was claimed in an event requiring strength, speed and mastery. The women’s Scratch Race was a tactical affair of 40 laps (10km), which saw Italy’s Martina Fidanza surge to victory in the very last laps. Her success comes on top of her many European crowns, notably in the Scratch Race (in 2017 as a Junior and in 2020 in the Under-23 and Elite categories) and her rainbow jerseys as a Junior (Scratch Race and team pursuit in 2017).

A couple of weeks before her 22nd birthday, Fidanza countered a move by Johanna Kitti Borissza (HUN) with five laps to go. She then opened up a significant gap as her rivals looked at each other, but failed to reel her in. Fidanza covered the 40 laps in 13:13mins (45.397km/h) and held her head in her hands as tears of joy drifted from behind her helmet.

Olympic Champion in the Omnium, Jennifer Valente (USA), reacted too late to bring back Fidanza. The American star eventually took bronze just behind Dutch rising talent Maike van der Duin.

Women’s team sprint: Germans rule the world

The Jean-Stablinski Velodrome had been freshened up for the UCI Worlds and its resurfaced track quickly proved to favour fast racing. The qualifying of the women’s team sprint, right after the opening ceremony, immediately saw the German team set a new world record of 46.511secs for Pauline Grabosch, Lea Sophie Friedrich and Emma Hinze in this new format featuring three riders per team (two for women in the previous editions).

The German trio went even faster in the first round (46.358secs) to qualify with the best time ahead of the finals. The Russians Natalia Antonova, Anatasiia Voinova and Daria Shmeleva dominated heat four (47.043) to face off against the German stars while the final for bronze would be between Great Britain and Japan.

The Russians brought their young talent Yana Tyshchenko into the final and took the best start, but they couldn’t respond when the Germans accelerated towards a UCI World title, a sixth for their nation in the women’s team sprint in the last 10 years and another world record: 46.064secs. Sophie Capewell, Blaine Ridge-Davis and Millicent Tanner took the bronze medal for Great Britain.

Men’s team sprint: Oranjes resist the French to stay on top

The men also set the ‘Stab’ on fire this Wednesday with the French sprinters impressing early in the team event. Florian Grengbo, Sébastien Vigier and Rayan Hell set a time of 42.965secs in the qualifying, coming close to the performance that granted them the bronze medal this summer in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Only the Dutch masters of the team sprint (Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland) went faster: 42.690secs.

Intensity rose in the first round, and both the French (42.467secs) and the Dutch (42.301secs) upped the pace to make sure they would battle for the gold medal later in the evening. With a time of 43.395secs, the British team saw the ride-off for bronze narrowly escape them in favour of the Germans (43.300secs) and Russians (43.380secs).

The Oranjes rode under 42secs (41.979secs) to claim a fourth consecutive UCI World Championship title for the Dutch sprint team with France taking silver as they did in 2019. The Germans Stefan Boetticher, Joachim Eilers and Nik Schroeter joined them on the podium.

On day two of the UCI Worlds, rainbow jerseys will be awarded in five disciplines, including the male and female team pursuits, whose stars already took to the track on Wednesday. Germany dominated the women’s qualifying with their golden quartet (Franziska Brausse, Lisa Brennauer, Mieke Kröger and Laura Süssemilch), winners at the Olympic Games (setting the world record on the occasion) and the European Championships in recent months. The Squadra Azzurra, led by Filippo Ganna, set the best time in the men’s qualifying and first round ahead of the French team, who beat their national record (4:47.816) at home to secure a spot in the final for gold.