November 24/24 20:20 pm - Dylan Bibic Wins Opening Round of Champions League

Posted by Editoress on 11/24/24
 

Canada's Dylan Bibic, the overall winner of the men's endurance category of the Track Champions League last season, started this year's Series with a win to don the Leader's Jersey after Round 1. in the women's endurance series, Sarah van Dam sits eighth overall after the first round.

The 2024 UCI Track Champions League kicked off with a bang in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, as the Paris Olympics velodrome welcomed back the world's top track cyclists for a thrilling opening evening of non-stop action, sponsored by CIC.

Almost 4,000 spectators watched on as Katie Archibald (Great Britain), Dylan Bibic (Canada), Emma Finucane (Great Britain) and Matthew Richardson (Great Britain) became the first riders to sport the coveted blue leaders' jerseys after taking the lead in their respective categories.

In the Men's Endurance competition Bibic came out on top in the Scratch Race, and added fourth place in a hard-fought Elimination race - won in decisive fashion by Will Perrett (Great Britain) - enough to put him back in the leader's jersey and on course to defend his 2023 title.

Archibald enjoyed a picture-perfect opening night of the season, winning both the Women's Scratch and Elimination races to soar to the top of the Women's Endurance standings, putting her in pole position to defend her title.

For Richardson, it was a stunning start to racing in British colours [he switched from Australia after the Paris Olympics], as he too claimed the maximum 40 points on offer in the Men's Sprint competition by winning the Sprint and Keirin races.

Finucane topped off a near-flawless night for Great Britain, topping the Women's Sprint standings with victory in the Sprint race and a second place in the Keirin, which was won by an utterly dominant Alina Lysenko (AIN) on her debut in the UCI Track Champions League.

Dylan Bibic (Canada) got his title defence off to a dream start in the Scratch Race. He triumphed over home favourite Clément Petit (France) in a reduced sprint for the line after a select group of five riders escaped with a handful of laps to go, with the former Scratch UCI World champion Bibic taking the win from Petit and Keegan Hornblow (New Zealand) in third.

It was a good start for Bibic in the Men’s Elimination, with several of his major rivals eliminated early on, including Petit, Grant Koontz (USA) and Hornblow. But the Canadian was in trouble several times and finished fourth, with another of his major rivals Lindsay de Vylder (Belgium) coming third. The home crowd went wild as youngster Oscar Nilsson-Julien (France) went head-to-head with Will Perrett for the win, but the Brit came storming around the Frenchman in the final lap to claim his first win in the UCI Track Champions League since 2022. The pair's brilliant Endurance race saw them round out the podium for the overall, with Nilsson-Julien second behind Bibic after Round 1 and Perrett third.

Bibic stated after the races, "It's a good feeling, being in the jersey early on like this, but I'm going to have a target on my back. It was a very hard Elimination, I was going 100%, I had nothing left. That was all-out - the Scratch Race, I won that with my tactics and not my legs, I just followed the right wheels at the right time. These guys are strong, so you guys are in for a very good show!"

The UCI Track Champions League returns next weekend for a double-header in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, with Round 2 on Friday [November29th] and Round 3 on Saturday [November 30th].