A vibrant atmosphere from the partisan French crowd in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines provided an absorbing backdrop for a series of top performances at the 2022 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, with the biggest names and countries going head to head on the boards to decide the home of the rainbow bands in 2022.
Men's Team Sprint
There was only one event where the dominance of the Dutch stranglehold on gold in the men's sprint events was disrupted and that came through the Aussies in the team sprint.
Tom Cornish, Leigh Hoffman, Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer combined in qualifiying, the first round and the finals to take out the title for the first time for Australia since 2012. They also snapped the Netherlands 4-year winning streak in the event.
Women's Point Race
Neah Evans (United Kingdom) took out a thrilling points race with the battle decided by the late taking of a lap, with Julie Leth (Denmark) in second and Jennifer Valente (USA) in third.
It was shades of Cameron Meyer's magnificent points race win in the 2012 Track Worlds in Melbourne, where the Australian took a lap late to secure the gold medal. This time, it was Meyer watching on as the coach of the UK women's track endurance team.
Men’s Individual Pursuit
Filippo Ganna (Italy) continues to put in more and more impressive performances to his legacy, backing up his recent hour record success with a new world record in the men's individual pursuit with a time of 3:59.636.
It was Ganna's first sub-four minute time in the discipline, beating Ashton Lambie's previous mark of 3:59.930 set at altitude in Aguascalientes in 2021.
Women’s 500m TT and Women's Sprint
Women's sprinting has a new challenger to the established stars at the top, with 20-year-old Marie Divine Kouame (France) impressing to win the 500m time trial. Kouame also did well in the other sprinting events, with compatriot Mathilde Gros taking out gold in the women's sprint after battles with the elite German pair of Emma Hinze in the semi-final and Lea Friedrich in the final.
Watch Mathilde Gros' final ride for gold on the Day 4 replay of competition on SBS On Demand from 3:32:00.
Women's Team Sprint
However, in the women's team sprint, it was a different matter, with the German team of Pauline Grabosch, Emma Hinze and Lea Friedrich taking out the reformed three woman version of the event, continuing the German dominance in the discipline and again lowering the world record twice as they bettered their first round world record with another in the finals.
Men’s Madison
While the French crowd got excited any time a local went on the attack or looked likely for a medal, it was really the men's madison where the atmosphere approached that of a football stadium celebrating a dramatic home team win.
That passion was whipped up by a superb ride from Donavan Grondin and Benjamin Thomas to the gold medal in the men's madison.
The Australian duo of Sam Welsford and Kell O'Brien held the lead after taking a lap mid-race, but had to work very hard to do so and when attacks from the major nations followed afterwards, it was a powerhouse performance by the French duo that drove a group across to take a lap, and combined with the top showings in the sprints, it was enough for a commanding lead.
That allowed the riders and the home crowd to celebrate in the final moments with chants going up around the velodrome as France secured gold, with Great Britain second and Belgium in third.
You can watch the men's madison as part of the Day 5 Evening Session full replay, skip to 1:26:00 for the start of the race.
Men’s sprint
Another final day of competition highlights was the men's sprint, with the Australian sprinters guaranteed to be going for medals, with Matthew Glaetzer and Matthew Richardson first squaring off in the semi-finals, with one assured of making the gold medal ride with the loser contesting for bronze.
Richardson was the winner in two from two close encounters against Glaetzer, setting him up for a finals encounter with the imposing Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen.
Lavreysen hadn't looked in danger at any point in the competition and that continued into the final as he took out the sprint title again, making it four times in a row for the track sprinting star. Richardson's silver is his best in the individual sprint, and he is capable of taking it up to the best and winning medals for years to come.
Glaetzer completed the podium to grab Australia's third medal of the championships, all of them taken by the men's sprinters.
Women’s Madison
The women's Madison was just as emotional as the men's, albeit without quite the same adulation from the crowd. The Belgian team of Lotte Kopecky and Shari Bossuyt pipped the French team by a single point, with Denmark in third.
It was another case of a late lap being the catalyst for the win, and the final sprint saw France fall agonisingly close as they tried to overtake their Belgian rivals.
Men’s Elimination
The elimination race is relatively new to the track world championships as a standalone event, reflecting its rising standing within the discipline. A mixture of fatigue management, positioning and sprinting ability, it's an event that slowly ratchets up the tension before the final, all-out effort in the finale.
There were plenty of crashes in this race, and the final few sprints that decided the win for Elia Viviani as defending champion were a fitting end for the competition in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
