Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Championships: Olympic Champions among those heading to Roubaix

Roubaix is ready to once again welcome the elite of cycling!

This time, though, the world’s finest cyclists aren’t heading towards the North of France to tame a cobbled Hell, like Lizzie Deignan and Sonny Colbrelli did at the beginning of October, but to battle for rainbow jerseys in the Jean-Stablinski velodrome, host of the 2021 Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Championships (October 20-24).

Rainbow jerseys will be awarded in 22 events (two more than in Berlin 2020): Scratch Race; individual and team sprints; individual and team pursuits; keirin; points race; Omnium; time trial; Madison and, for the first time, the elimination. Also a first, the women’s team sprint will be raced with three riders per team (against two previously), meaning the men and women will battle for the same number of medals.

Olympic Champions take to the "Stab"

The UCI Track Cycling World Championships, initially set to be held in Turkmenistan a week earlier, attract an impressive cast of stars in Roubaix, including many heroes of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Among the dozens of riders heading to the ‘Stab’, 18 champs took gold medals in the Izu velodrome and are now on the hunt for further glory in a very special year that’ll soon see them battle it out in the new UCI Track Champions League.

Harrie Lavreysen (NED) was the only rider to claim two gold medals in the velodrome of Tokyo 2020, in the individual and team sprints, repeating his achievements at the UCI Worlds in Pruszkow (Poland) in 2019 and Berlin (Germany) in 2020, where he also won the keirin. Lavreysen will be in Roubaix alongside fellow Dutchman and rival Jeffrey Hoogland, UCI World Champion in the kilometre time trial three years ago.

Sam Ligtlee (winner of the kilometre time trial in Berlin 2020) and Roy van den Berg, who accompanied them in the conquest of Olympic gold in the team sprint, are also expected in Roubaix.

German power and global talents

A surprise winner in the Olympic Games keirin, Shanne Braspennincx (NED) recently took European crowns both in the individual and the team sprints. In Roubaix, she’s set to face Canada’s Kelsey Mitchell, winner of the individual sprint in Tokyo. They’ll have to battle against the defending UCI World Champion Emma Hinze (GER).

German talents are also expected to shine in the women’s pursuit events with the impressive Franziska Brausse, Lisa Brennauer, Lisa Klein and Mieke Kroeger, who claimed the Olympic gold and the world record this summer. Brennauer’s many achievements and their recent victory at the European Championships show this quartet is ready to keep up with their blazing pace.

Among their fierce rivals, the British squad is led by Katie Archibald, who won the event in 2014 and took silver in 2015, 18, 19 and 20. Alongside Neah Evans, she’s also chasing another gold medal in the Madison, after winning the world title in 2018 (with Emily Nelson) and the Olympics this summer (with Laura Kenny).

The USA’s Jennifer Valente, winner of the Omnium in Tokyo 2020, is also used to claiming gold in the team pursuit of the UCI World Championships (2016, 17, 18 and 20). She’s ready to participate in the Omnium, the Scratch Race and the points race (she took silver in both events in Berlin 2020), and is a substitute in the Madison.

More versatile riders from all horizons

Italy’s golden quartet in the team pursuit (Filippo Ganna, Simone Consonni, Francesco Lamon and Jonathan Milan) and the Danish duo, comprising Michael Morkov and Lasse Norman Hansen (Madison), are the other Olympic Champions gearing up for the UCI Worlds.

In Roubaix, they’ll vie with many versatile talents. Frenchman Benjamin Thomas, fourth in the Omnium in Tokyo (and a bronze medalist in the Madison), will look for a bounce back at the heights of his performances in the same event at the Worlds: winner in 2017 and 2020, runner-up in 2019.

Among his rivals, Ethan Hayther, the fresh time trial British National Champion on the road, returns to the track, where he won a rainbow jersey (team pursuit) three years ago and a silver medal (Madison) this summer in the Olympic Games.

Defending UCI World Champions on the track such as Belarus’ Yauheni Karaliok (Scratch Race), the Netherlands’ Kirsten Wild (Scratch Race) and New Zealand’s Corbin Strong (points race) are also looking for the rainbow jerseys in events that were not part of the Olympic Games programme. History is about to be written again in Roubaix!