December 12/24 13:12 pm - Bibic Retains Overall Track Champions League Title

Posted by Editoress on 12/12/24
 

Amid turmoil and cancelled races, Canada's Dylan Bibic successfully defended his overall Men's Endurance title in the Track Champions League after five rounds of racing. Sara van Dam faltered in the final round of the Women's Endurance, losing her second place standing, but still managing to finish fourth overall.

Rounds 4 and 5 took place in London, UK, at the Lee Valley VeloPark, with the fifth round cut short after a crash in the women's Keirin saw two riders go over the railing and into the crowd. Katy Marchant (Great Britain) suffered a broken arm and dislocated fingers, while the other rider - Alessa-Catriona Propster of Germany - and four spectators suffered minor injuries.

Nevertheless, organizers decided to cancel the remainder of the night's racing; the final events in the Sprint for both women and men, and the men's Elimination. This meant that the final standings were calculated on nine events instead of ten for three of the four categories. The leaders going into Round 5 in all four categories held onto their leads for the overall titles - Katie Archibald (Great Britain) for Women's Endurance, Dylan Bibic (Canada) for Men's Endurance, Alina Lysenko for Women's Sprint and Harrie Lavreysen (the Netherlands) for Men's Sprint were crowned this season's UCI Track Champions League winners.

Dylan Bibic led the Men's Endurance league from Round 1 in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France, winning three races en route to defending his title from 2023. Bibic was supremely consistent, finishing on the podium a further two times, and his aggressive racing strategy paid off. He ended the Series 20 points ahead of his nearest challenger, Tobias Aagard Hansen (Denmark), and with three race wins to the Dane's two.

Only one other rider, Peter Moore (USA) won two races across this season of the UCI Track Champions League, with Lindsay de Vylder (Belgium) and Will Perrett (Great Britain) taking the remaining two victories - demonstrating that this was a league packed with talent and possible contenders for the title. But it was Bibic who consistently brought his A game to stay head and shoulders above the rest of the field.

Victory in the Scratch Race in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines - his very first race of the Series - put him in pole position, while he enjoyed his best round in Round 2 in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. There, he finished second in the Scratch Race before going one better in the Elimination, with Bibic and Aagard Hansen sharing the top two spots across both races. The pair continued to trade blows and in the later stages of the contest it looked like a two-horse race for the title, although there were plenty of podium challengers making their presence felt.

Bibic said: "It feels great to be lifting this trophy once again and to have come away with multiple race wins this season. I'm proud of how I raced this season and handled the competition, especially after having a target on my back from leading since Round 1. I raced aggressively and consistently all the way through, I raced to win, and I'm really happy to have pulled it off. It feels great to have back-to-back titles after winning last year. The standard of competition has been really high this year and some of the guys really gave me a run for my money!"

Sara Van Dam rode consistently well through the Series until the final round, including a win in the Scratch Race in Round 2, second in the Elimination in Round 3, plus a third and a fourth. She went into the final round in second place to Archibold, four points in front of Anita Yvonne Stenberg (Norway), but faltered in the final round, finishing ninth (Scratch) and 14th (Elimination) in the final two races. Van Dam finished with 105 points to Stenberg at 120 and Lara Gillespie (Ireland) in third overall at 112 points.

Van Dam commented, "Performance wise, there were highs and lows ... Truly grateful for this, and for all the support from back home! It's hard when we don't achieve what we know we are capable of, but I will take the positives, hold my head high, and keep trying."