Track Cycling 2024 Discussion Thread

[Totallympics 55]

[Grassmarket 2,760]

ES / Discovery has coverage of the French nationals this weekend.

[Rafa Maciel 1,261]

Entry lists for the Oceania Championship are up:

 

OTC24-Master-Database-Entry-List-for-Website-at-1-Feb.pdf (cyclingnewzealand.nz)

 

The format is pretty horrible so couple of thoughts:

 

There's no Matt Richardson in the sprint events for Australia, but they do have Cornish and Hoffman so should still be able to take top spot in team sprint.

 

In the team pursuit, Aaron Gate isn't listed against the event, but not sure that should be taken as gospel. They will have Keegan Hornblow, Nick Kergozou and Tom Sexton. 

 

Ellese Andrews appears on the entry lists but not sure she will be on the start line after breaking her collarbone in Adelaide.

 

Edited February 11 by Rafa Maciel

[Rafa Maciel 1,261]

Confirmed start lists for the Oceania track cycling championships:

 

Women's Team Pursuit:

 - Bryony Botha / Emily Shearman / Nicole Shields / Ally Wollaston

 - Sally Carter / Claudia Marcks / Sophie Marr / Keira Will

 

With the exception of Nicole Shields who is replacing Samantha Donnelly, this is the same squad that New Zealand had at the Adelaide NC last week. 

 

For Australia, their big names are back on the road so they are fielding what was the Australia B team from Adelaide NC. 

 

There is a 3rd team riding under the name of Captain Marvel 

 

Women's Team Sprint:

 - With Ellesse Andrews nursing collarbone injury, Sophie De Vries comes into the squad, joining Rebecca Petch and Shaane Fulton.

 - Have 2 teams competing. Australia 1 replicates the team used at the NC in Adelaide with the exception of Kalinda Robinson who replaces Breanna Hargrave and joins Molly Mcgill and Alessia McCaig.

 

Men's Team Pursuit:

 - Daniel Bridgwater / Keegan Hornblow / George Jackson / Tom Sexton (Nick Kergozou reserve)

 - John Carter / Graeme Frislie / Conor Leahy / Liam Walsh (Kurt Eather reserve)

 

For NZL, this is definitely a 2nd tier squad with only Tom Sexton being part of the bronze medal winning team from Glasgow last year.  Both Sexton and Hornblower were on the squad in Adelaide last week. 

 

The Australian team is a bit of a Frankenstein mash up of the 2 teams they had in Adelaide last week but like NZL, they too are missing their big named road riders.

 

Men's Team Sprint:

None of the big  names are here and  don't have a national squad riding - although there is a team listed under Te Awamutu Sports Cycling. 

 

There does seem to be something inherently unfair that a championship like this awards full points when there are only 2 nations competing whereas if it was to be classed as a Regional Games, it wouldn't offer any points at all. 

 

 

[NearPup 2,167]

4 hours ago, Rafa Maciel said:

There does seem to be something inherently unfair that a championship like this awards full points when there are only 2 nations competing whereas if it was to be classed as a Regional Games, it wouldn't offer any points at all. 

 

 

Mild take: continental championships should never offer any world ranking points (unless the ranking system is some form of Elo-like system where points are awarded based strength of opposition and not by final ranking)

Edited February 14 by NearPup

[heywoodu 13,562]

2 hours ago, NearPup said:

Mild take: continental championships should never offer any world ranking points (unless the ranking system is some form of Elo-like system where points are awarded based strength of opposition and not by final ranking)

Absolutely true. The Elo-like system would in theory be fine, but probably hard to implement in a fair way (just look at the never-ending discussions about FIS points in cross-country skiing), so better not offer any points at all for continental championships. It'd honestly be laughable to get as many points for being the slowest competitive team in the Oceanian championships (you know, finishing 2nd) as you'd get for say beating France, Germany, Poland and Great Britain...but not the Netherlands (or any random combination of those teams), which is obviously a way better result in reality.

[Grassmarket 2,760]

UK Nationals this weekend on FTA

 

 

 

https://youtube.com/@britishcycling?si=r3v6KN1EO_fBW9m3

 

[Rafa Maciel 1,261]

14 minutes ago, Grassmarket said:

UK Nationals this weekend on FTA

 

 

 

https://youtube.com/@britishcycling?si=r3v6KN1EO_fBW9m3

 

No Laura Kenny on the start list - doesn't look likely that she is going to be figuring in Team GB squad for Paris. 

[mpjmcevoy 202]

On 2/14/2024 at 6:38 AM, heywoodu said:

Absolutely true. The Elo-like system would in theory be fine, but probably hard to implement in a fair way (just look at the never-ending discussions about FIS points in cross-country skiing), so better not offer any points at all for continental championships. It'd honestly be laughable to get as many points for being the slowest competitive team in the Oceanian championships (you know, finishing 2nd) as you'd get for say beating France, Germany, Poland and Great Britain...but not the Netherlands (or any random combination of those teams), which is obviously a way better result in reality.

True, but it's a fairly obvious mathematical way to 'rejig' the numbers for 'universality' - it's precisely this effect they're aiming at - it's a feature, not a bug.