Cycling | Track Cycling World Championships in Chile: The gap between the continents

One of the most beautiful scenes of these Track Cycling World Championships in Chile occurred after the men's keirin final. Harry Lavreysen had won again, his fourth title in the discipline. Celebrating his 19th rainbow jersey overall, he extended his hand to second-placed Australian Leigh Hoffman. Hoffman, in his very first individual World Championship start, immediately finished in the medal positions, separating the Dutch dream team of Lavreysen and his third-placed compatriot Jeffrey Hoogland. Both have 30 titles and a total of 46 World Championship medals.

Clear national ranking

The Keirin finish is symptomatic of the championships in Santiago de Chile : European athletes dominate the competitions, especially those from the Netherlands. Before the final races on Sunday evening, the nation rankings included only two non-European federations and the top ten: the eighth-placed Australians and the Japanese, two places behind them. South America, considered the host continent, came away completely empty-handed, although Colombia, for example, had traveled with former Keirin World Champion Kevin Quintero and, with Nicholas Paul from Trinidad and Tobago, a former runner-up in the world championships, was in the squad.

Infrastructure isn't really the explanation for this gap. Colombia, for example, has eight velodromes, three of which have the 250-meter track required for World Championships and the Olympics. Argentina has more than a dozen (seven of which are over 250 meters), and World Championship host Chile has four. Other continents have also caught up. In India, for example, there are more than a dozen tracks currently in use, most of which are over 333 meters. Japan has long been a major player in track cycling thanks to its keirin culture, and China has been making progress since the Beijing Summer Games, crowned, among other things, by the Olympic victory in the women's team sprint in Tokyo in 2021. Africa is also following suit, at least in terms of infrastructure. The Cairo Velodrome was built in Egypt in 2020, and in Nigeria, the Abuja Velodrome, long used only as a gas cylinder storage facility, has been in use since 2019.

Few competitions

The gap with Europe is nevertheless growing. One reason for this is the small number of competitions outside of Europe. "We have one of the best tracks in all of Latin America. However, the federation is only planning two competitions here for the entire year 2025," criticized cycling manager Rolando Manzanelli from San Juan, Argentina, this summer. Structural deficiencies are also a concern. Regarding the recently renovated concrete track in Maule, Chile, the coach there, Claudio Muñoz, noted: "The surface generates a lot of vibrations that affect the legs. It's also very shiny, which leads to glare."

The World Championships in the Santiago de Chile Velodrome also saw some bad luck on the sporting front. Colombia's former world champion Quintero crashed in the keirin final. The Chilean team crashed in the team pursuit during qualifying, as did the Chilean women's Madison duo. However, several other riders were affected in this highly chaotic competition. Dutch favorite Lorena Wiebes sustained an injury, preventing her from adding to her scratch and omnium titles.

Tradition and medals

One South American hope is 19-year-old Colombian Stefany Cuadrado, who finished fifth in the 1000-meter pursuit in her World Championship debut. A trained table tennis player, she only turned to cycling due to the restrictions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic. She became a three-time Junior World Champion last year and is considered a future champion of Colombia's track tradition. In 1971, Martin "Cochise" Rodriguez won the first rainbow jersey for his country on the track.

The German team had two medals until the penultimate day of competition. Scratch World Champion Moritz Augenstein was on course for a medal in the omnium until the end, but then slipped to fifth place. Lea Friedrich and Henric Hackmann each achieved fourth places in the 1000-meter time trial. This was rather sobering for multiple world champion Friedrich, but a fantastic success for World Championship newcomer Hackmann, this year's U23 European Champion in this discipline. However, because there is still a gap between them and the absolute world elite, the Germans, along with the South Americans, will have to come up with some ideas for the future. Many tracks – 22 in Germany – are no guarantee of success.