Track Cycling at the Cycling UCI World Championships 2023

[Grassmarket 4,103]

1 hour ago, Matteo92 said:

After the first day and a half of competition, I think the logical assumption is that almost all Italian riders are in terrible form 

Italy more than any other nation relies on road riders doubling on track, which obviously does not work when the track WCs are in August….

[phelps 8,394]

1 hour ago, SalamAkhi said:

Lavreysen is not the finisher, he's always n°2. It was, as usual, Hoogland, who seems to be on a (relative) downward trajectory. But I feel he was in control yesterday, given the crazy first two laps. It may have been the fastest the NL have ever been since I don't remember seeing van den Berg closing in less than 17.1 (17.06).

you're right

 

however, it doesn't change much in perspective...our guy is for real

 

maybe Paris 2024 comes a bit too early, but I expect a lot from him in the future (ps with his skills, he might be already very competitive in Keirin, but I don't know if our coaches want him to work properly in that dangerous discipline)

[phelps 8,394]

1 minute ago, Grassmarket said:

Italy more than any other nation relies on road riders doubling on track, which obviously does not work when the track WCs are in August….

yeah, too much road races for our guys

 

and too much bad luck for our girls, who all come out from very serious injuries (especially our supposed leader in women's pursuit, Guazzini)

 

let's hope to qualify the full contingent to the Games and I'm sure it will be a different story

[Adriano 626]

1 hour ago, dodge said:

Pretty much on par performance for the Italian women’s pursuit this year though. They’re a good bit behind GB, France and Germany in Europe alone

 

The top 9 today (including  in 9th) are all pretty much guaranteed Olympic qualification now IMO

Japan also

[OlympicsFan 860]

1 hour ago, phelps said:

you're right

 

however, it doesn't change much in perspective...our guy is for real

 

maybe Paris 2024 comes a bit too early, but I expect a lot from him in the future (ps with his skills, he might be already very competitive in Keirin, but I don't know if our coaches want him to work properly in that dangerous discipline)

What happened to the ru... israeli guy? I thought he was supposed to be the "real deal"?

[phelps 8,394]

34 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

What happened to the ru... israeli guy? I thought he was supposed to be the "real deal"?

he's too inconsistent

 

great talent, great power, but not so skilled in the one-vs-one matchups and sometimes he seems not to be interested in what's going on around him

 

he's still among the most expected new stars of track cycling, but I think Predomo is way better than him (he's extremely skilled in the one-vs-one matchups and he's still a superlightweight...he definitely has way more margin of improvement of the Israeli guy)

 

however, as I wrote, right now Yakovlev is already a fully built man ready to win (on his good days), Predomo is just a promising youngster (just turned 19 last Spring)

Edited August 4, 2023 by phelps

[phelps 8,394]

3 hours ago, dodge said:

Pretty much on par performance for the Italian women’s pursuit this year though. They’re a good bit behind GB, France and Germany in Europe alone

 

The top 9 today (including  in 9th) are all pretty much guaranteed Olympic qualification now IMO

well, our girls have been injured through the entire year, we've never competed with the "A" team in the previous events

 

this time it was their first outing all together as a team and I think it was well visible...not only they rode quite slowly, but also the changes were far from being acceptable at this level

 

and as I wrote earlier, they're still too much focused on the road races, they are basically not used to ride on the track (until last week they were all at the Tour de France femmes, for instance...not the best way to prepare for the track worlds)

[OlympicsFan 860]

22 minutes ago, phelps said:

he's too inconsistent

 

great talent, great power, but not so skilled in the one-vs-one matchups and sometimes he seems not to be interested in what's going on around him

 

he's still among the most expected new stars of track cycling, but I think Predomo is way better than him (he's extremely skilled in the one-vs-one matchups and he's still a superlightweight...he definitely has way more margin of improvement of the Israeli guy)

 

however, as I wrote, right now Yakovlev is already a fully built man ready to win (on his good days), Predomo is just a promising youngster (just turned 19 last Spring)

We will see. I definitely wouldn't bet on him, given that Italy hasn't shown that they can produce elite sprinters. Germany also is very good at junior level on the men's side, but they don't know how to get close to the Netherlands/Australia at senior level. Some years ago Greece and India also both had a great talent at junior level, but (as far as i know) neither of them really "clicked" at senior level.

[CCB 612]

1 hour ago, OlympicsFan said:

What happened to the ru... israeli guy? I thought he was supposed to be the "real deal"?

I expect a lot from Yakovlev this tournament. Will be tough battle between him, Lavreysen, Richardson and maybe others, like Rudyk and the Japanese guys. I think Hoogland's time is over.

[phelps 8,394]

7 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

We will see. I definitely wouldn't bet on him, given that Italy hasn't shown that they can produce elite sprinters. Germany also is very good at junior level on the men's side, but they don't know how to get close to the Netherlands/Australia at senior level. Some years ago Greece and India also both had a great talent at junior level, but (as far as i know) neither of them really "clicked" at senior level.

we've changed a lot of things with our coaching staff and we've hired former raod sprinter Ivan Quaranta as a supervisor for the sprinters

 

even if it dates back in time, we've also a great tradition in men's track sprinting...after years when the federation totally dismissed all the track programs, now we have new officials that showed interest and the ability to work well...we've rebuilt the endurance sector first, we're going to rebuild the sprint group too, very soon...

Edited August 4, 2023 by phelps