The fastest sprinters write history on the final day of the UCI Track Worlds

The 2021 Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Championships came to an end with five titles awarded on day five. Among the winners of the day, Harrie Lavreysen, Lea Sophie Friedrich and Elia Viviani demonstrated pure speed, while Lotte Kopecky, Lasse Norman Hansen and Michael Mørkøv displayed their craft to claim gold as well.

Women’s points race: Kopecky takes gold and Wild bids farewell with bronze

The first medals of the day were contested in the points race after 100 intense laps (25km). In front of her French supporters, Marion Borras was the first rider to lap the field and gain 20 points, but she was far from the last to make a move.

The stars of the discipline went all guns blazing and Belgian star Lotte Kopecky claimed 60 points just by lapping her rivals. With 16 more points in the sprints, she snatched gold from British icon Katie Archibald, who scored 72 points to take her fourth medal in Roubaix 2021, including gold in the Omnium.

The final spot on the podium was occupied by another of the sport's stars, the Dutch rider Kirsten Wild (60 pts), bidding farewell at her last UCI Worlds with an 18th medal (including nine golds), the day after she took the Madison rainbow jersey with her partner Amy Pieters.

Men’s sprint: Lavreysen the fastest man in Roubaix

The final day in the ‘Stab’ began with the fastest sprinters going head to head. Following the first rounds on Saturday, the Dutch stars Jeffrey Hoogland and Harrie Lavreysen faced Stefan Boetticher (GER) and Sébastien Vigier (FRA) in the semi-finals. The two-time defending champion Lavreysen dominated Vigier in two rounds. Boetticher got the best of Hoogland (runner-up to Lavreysen in 2019 and 2020, as well as in the Olympic Games) in the first round, but the Dutch sprinter eventually joined his compatriot in the final for gold after the decider.

Intensity rose in the finals with the two Dutchmen going for a standstill to play with each other’s nerves before they unleashed their power. Lavreysen dominated the first heat… and went on to take the second as well. Just like in Berlin 2020, he claims three rainbow jerseys, with the team sprint and the keirin as well. This year, he also won the team and individual pursuits at the Olympic Games and European Championships.

Meanwhile, it took three rounds for Vigier to get the best of Boetticher and take the bronze medal, as he did in Apeldoorn 2018.

Men’s Madison: Hansen and Mørkøv in their own world

The Olympic and UCI World Champions Lasse Norman Hansen and Michael Mørkøv (DEN) were back in action to chase more gold, but faced strong opposition in the 200 thrilling laps of the Madison. Simone Consonni and Michele Scartezzini (Italy) were the most efficient attackers, lapping the field two times to score 40 points. They also dominated the fourth and seventh sprints and eventually scored a total of 64 points, granting them the silver medal.

Four other teams managed to lap the field, once: Denmark, Belgium, Great Britain and France. Among them, the Danes were the most consistent, scoring in 13 of the 20 sprints to retain their rainbow jerseys (68 pts).

The French, with Morgan Kneisky (three-time winner of the Madison at the UCI Worlds) participating in his last race, alongside Benjamin Thomas, scored in 12 separate sprints but they couldn’t hold off the Belgians in the final run-in. Kenny De Ketele and Robbe Ghys thus took bronze with 62 points, while Great Britain and France had 58.

Women’s keirin: Friedrich makes it six rainbows for Germany

The female keirin began without the two German stars Emma Hinze (two-time UCI World Champion in Roubaix, winner of the keirin in Berlin 2020) and Pauline Grabosch (winner of the team pursuit this week). The Olympic Champion Shanne Braspennincx (NED) dominated her heat in the first round while Canada’s Kelsey Mitchell (winner of the sprint in Tokyo 2020) had to go through the repechage.

Lea Sophie Friedrich, the only German in the second round, won her heat to power to the final for gold with Madalyn Godby (USA) and Daria Shmeleva (RCF). Mitchell was dominant in the second heat, qualifying with Yana Tyschchenko (RCF) and Mina Sato (JPN).

With the weight of the many German successes on her shoulders, Friedrich didn’t cave, taking the reins and sprinting to her third rainbow jersey this week (after the 500m time trial and the team sprint, with a silver medal in the individual sprint as well). Germany took six UCI World Champion titles in Roubaix, all in women's events. Mina Sato (JPN) and Yana Tyschchenko (RCF) joined her on the podium.

Men’s elimination: Viviani sprints to the last gold and his first

The 2021 Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Championships closed with a final thriller featuring 22 challengers for the gold medal. Donavan Grondin (FRA), winner of the Scratch Race earlier this week, narrowly missed on the podium of the elimination (fourth). One spot ahead of him, Sergei Rostovtsev (RCF) didn’t have enough energy left in his legs to battle for gold against Elia Viviani (ITA) and Iúri Leitão (POR).

Viviani, the Omnium Olympic Champion in Rio 2016, mastered the final sprint to take his seventh medal in the UCI Track Cycling World Championships, and his first rainbow jersey, as the first-ever winner of the elimination. Leitão’s silver is Portugal's only medal in Roubaix 2021 and it came at the last moment.

With a host of triumphs in the women’s events, Germany topped the medal table with six golds, one more than the Dutch, while the Italians claimed four rainbow jerseys. In Roubaix, French riders won six medals, including two victories, their best record since the 2017 UCI Worlds. The stars of the velodromes can now shift their focus towards the newly created UCI Track Champions League with the first round taking place in Mallorca (Spain) on November 6.