Track Cycling UCI World Championships 2018

[Totallympics 69]

Track Cycling UCI World Championships 2018

 

Apeldoorn (NED) - 28 February 2018 - 4 March 2018

 

 

Totallympics Results Thread

[AlFHg 330]

Sadly there is no elimination race, unless the one run in the omnium competitions. I wonder why, as it probably is the most spectacular race, in my personal opinion. 

 

However, can't wait for the start. Italy is going to take parts in almost every event and finally it looks like we have returned to be a reference nation, at least in the endurance

[OlympicsFan 860]

I am very surprised to see Stefan Bötticher back, never dreamt of this happening, amazing news for german cycling. For me its a scandal that he wasnt allowed to compete individually here, but i guess some people were afraid of him, especially since the situation wasnt much different than the situation we had with Bos last year.

On the other hand i am very sad that Max Niederlag ended his career, but if you cant motivate yourself anymore its better to end your career than to take away a spot from a motivated athlete. Domenic Weinstein, by far the most important athlete of the german team pursuit team wont compete due to illness, so if Germany ever had a small medal chance in this event, the chance is gone now.

 

German expectations:

2 x gold in womens sprint/keirin

Medal in womens team sprint

Medal in mens team sprint

Every other medal in an olympic discipline would be a surprise, unless Eilers finally gets his shit together in Keirin ...

 

With 2 more golds here Kristina Vogel could tie Anna Mears' record of 11 gold medals. Doing it at 27 years of age would make it even more impressive in my opinion. If she continues her dominance until 2020, she could very well put the record out of everyone's reach for a very long time.

 

I am really looking forward to see whether Pauline Grabosch can do some damage here.

Edited February 27, 2018 by OlympicsFan

[JoshMartini007 2,567]

  On 2/27/2018 at 9:30 AM, AlFHg said:

Sadly there is no elimination race, unless the one run in the omnium competitions. I wonder why, as it probably is the most spectacular race, in my personal opinion. 

 

However, can't wait for the start. Italy is going to take parts in almost every event and finally it looks like we have returned to be a reference nation, at least in the endurance

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The elimination race is great to watch. I imagine the UCI doesn't want another long distance event, especially one that would be around the same distance as the scratch race, even if the strategies within the events are different.

[AlFHg 330]

  On 2/27/2018 at 5:14 PM, JoshMartini007 said:

 

The elimination race is great to watch. I imagine the UCI doesn't want another long distance event, especially one that would be around the same distance as the scratch race, even if the strategies within the events are different.

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I'm surprised most of all that UCI doesn't complain with IOC for low number of events in track cycling. Potentially, track cycling (and cycling in general) could be as popular as athletics or acquatics, and it will definitely deserve more medal events

[carivan 73]

  On 2/27/2018 at 5:52 PM, AlFHg said:

 

I'm surprised most of all that UCI doesn't complain with IOC for low number of events in track cycling. Potentially, track cycling (and cycling in general) could be as popular as athletics or acquatics, and it will definitely deserve more medal events

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I agree, but I think they see road as the money-maker. There's a reason guys like Gaviria leave track (and he's killing it in road so it's hard to fault him).

 

I will be paying close attention to the keirin, of course.

[JoshMartini007 2,567]

  On 2/27/2018 at 5:52 PM, AlFHg said:

 

I'm surprised most of all that UCI doesn't complain with IOC for low number of events in track cycling. Potentially, track cycling (and cycling in general) could be as popular as athletics or acquatics, and it will definitely deserve more medal events

Expand  

 

Athletics and aquatics are much more popular than track cycling

[AlFHg 330]

  On 2/27/2018 at 6:04 PM, JoshMartini007 said:

 

Athletics and aquatics are much more popular than track cycling

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True, and it essentially for two main reasons:

 

1) you don't need specific structures for practicing it (at least at lower levels)

2) no great "characters" exist in cycling, and especially in track cycling

 

If UCI cannot do anything for the first, then it should work on the second: add medal events in the programme of world championships and world cup so that three/four athletes can be rivals in 5/6 different sports. That is how popularity starts, according to me

[heywoodu 15,353]

  On 2/27/2018 at 6:08 PM, AlFHg said:

True, and it essentially for two main reasons:

 

1) you don't need specific structures for practicing it (at least at lower levels)

2) no great "characters" exist in cycling, and especially in track cycling

 

If UCI cannot do anything for the first, then it should work on the second: add medal events in the programme of world championships and world cup so that three/four athletes can be rivals in 5/6 different sports. That is how popularity starts, according to me

Expand  

 

Characters very much exist especially in road cycling, but yeah, in track cycling it's all a bit smaller in terms of attention. Maybe because there's so few big events, like I get the feeling at half the World Cups it's mostly the C-level riders who even are there. 

[JoshMartini007 2,567]

I agree, there's no reason to not have a bunch of events at the World Championship though they should spend a few years introducing it at world cup to increase participation.