Cycling: World champion Ellesse Andrews joins Kiwi riders in Track Champions League

Ellesse Andrews in action at the recent UCI World Championships in Glasgow. Photo / SWPix

Cambridge-based world champion sprinter Ellesse Andrews will have an opportunity to test out the track for next year’s Paris Olympics as part of the UCI Track Champions League.

The league, in its third year, is a development from the UCI, comprising a select number of elite riders for a series of one-off exhibition events over four weeks in Europe.

While there are no major honours at stake, when there are several Olympic and world champions competing in front of packed velodromes, with exciting formats, televised live with useful prizemoney up for grabs, there is plenty of incentive to perform.

The series has been designed to reinvigorate track cycling, creating an innovative format to engage fans and create an economic model to help develop the sport.

Andrews will join fellow Cycling New Zealand sprinters Sam Dakin and Callum Saunders in the sprint field, while Emma Cumming, now focusing on endurance, will have her second year in the competition.

They are among 36 sprinters and 36 endurance men and women to contest the opening round this weekend in Mallorca, to be followed in successive weekends in Berlin, Paris and a final double-header in London, where the final night is already booked out.

“Really we only have a handful of competitions each year where we can race competitively against other nations,” said Cycling New Zealand sprint coach Jon Andrews.

“It’s the Nations Cups, Oceania Champs and World Champs. They are all key events as well, so not really the time to try out tactics in the heat of battle.

“This is an awesome opportunity for our riders to get some experience with tactics and racecraft against many of the riders who will be in Paris next year and get a final opportunity to race and train again on the velodrome for the Paris Olympics.”

Andrews, the keirin world champion, is joined by the likes of Briton Emma Finucane, the sprint world champion; two-time Pan-American champion Martha Bayona Pineda of Colombia, Olympic sprint champion Kelsey Mitchell of Canada and former keirin world champion Nicky DeGrendele of Belgium.

Dakin and Saunders are included in a stellar men’s field headed by Dutch sprint legend Harrie Lavreysen, the 13-time world and two-time Olympic champion. Other star sprinters include Poland’s Rudyk Mateusz and keirin world silver medallist Matthew Richardson of Australia.

The endurance field includes scratch world champion Sebastian Mora of Spain and Scotland’s Kiwi-based Mark Stewart, the former world individual pursuit world champion.

Cumming also faces strong competition led by distinguished Katie Archibald of Great Britain, a five-time world and two-time Olympic champion.

The series, which attracted 18,000 spectators and a television audience of 11.4 million from 81 countries, is organised by Warner Bros Discovery Sports and the UCI.

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