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10 riders to watch at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships
The UCI Track Cycling World Championships will run from 16th-20th October 2024, taking place in Ballerup, Denmark. Rainbow jerseys will be awarded across both sprint and endurance disciplines including the individual sprint, team sprint, team pursuit, madison and omnium events.
Numerous riders will be on the start line having won gold at the Olympic Games this summer, including the Netherlands’ Harrie Lavreysen, Great Britain’s Emma Finucane and the United States’ Jennifer Valente.
Katie Archibald returns to action for Great Britain and SD Worx road rider Lorena Wiebes of the Netherlands makes her debut here. However regulations mean that Matthew Richardson will not be able to compete in these World Championships (or the 2025 European Championships) after switching nationality from Australia to Great Britain.
Here are ten of the riders to keep an eye on as the action kicks off.
Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands)
Superstar Harrie Lavreysen had a phenomenal summer at the Olympics, winning three gold medals in the sprint, team sprint and keirin. He’ll be racing in these three events at the World Championships, of which he’s defending his rainbow bands in the sprint and team sprint, but also adding another unexpected challenge into the mix too.
Lavreysen will additionally be riding the 1km time-trial, an event he has not yet competed in, and one his fellow countryman Jeffrey Hoogland is the defending World Champion in.
Katie Archibald (Great Britain)
Katie Archibald returns to action at the World Championships. The Scottish track star was forced out of the Olympics this summer after breaking two bones in her leg and ripping two ligaments off the bone.
She last raced in a velodrome in April when she won the omnium, madison (with Neah Evans) and team pursuit at the World Cup in Canada. At the last World Championships in her home country, Archibald was part of the four-woman squad who powered to victory over New Zealand by 4.542sec in the team pursuit and she’ll be competing in the same discipline once again alongside Megan Barker, Josie Knight and Anna Morris.
Emma Finucane (Great Britain)
Individual sprint World Champion Emma Finucane won in straight sets against Germany’s Lea Friedrich last year and heads to these World Championships riding high off her Olympics success.
Finucane recently became the first British woman to win three cycling medals in the same Olympics with a gold in the team sprint and two bronzes in both the sprint and keirin. She will be lining up alongside fellow gold medallists Sophie Capewell and Katy Marchant in the team sprint.
Ellesse Andrews (New Zealand)
Ellesse Andrews made history at the Olympics by becoming the first woman to complete the sprint and keirin double, winning gold in both events at the same Games. The Kiwi heads to Denmark to defend her title in the keirin, an event in which she narrowly beat out Colombia’s Martha Bayona by just 0.01sec last year.
Lotte Kopecky (Belgium)
Multiple World Champion Lotte Kopecky is always a force to watch on the bike no matter the discipline.
Earlier this year at the European Track Championships in the Netherlands, she took home gold in the elimination and points races while finishing second in the madison. She scored a bronze medal on the road at the Olympics and now returns to the track to defend her World Championships title in the points race.
Jennifer Valente (United States)
Double Olympic Champion Jennifer Valente defended her omnium gold and was part of the gold medal-winning United States squad in the team pursuit this summer, becoming the most decorated US female cyclist in Olympic history.
Valente also became the most decorated American track cyclist at the 2023 World Championships, with victory in both the omnium and scratch race plus a bronze medal in the elimination race, taking her career medal total to 20. At just 29 years of age, there’s no telling how many more she can win. She has a packed schedule lined up for Worlds, currently pencilled in for the madison, points race, scratch race, elimination race and omnium.
Vittoria Guazzini, Chiara Consonni (Italy)
Italian duo Vittoria Guazzini and Chiara Consonni stormed to victory with a gold medal in the madison at the Olympic Games. The pair last won a rainbow jersey in the velodrome at the 2022 World Championships in France, when Italy secured the gold medal in the women’s team pursuit by 1.609sec against Great Britain. The pair last won a rainbow jersey on the velodrome at the 2022 World Championships in France, when Italy secured the gold medal in the women’s team pursuit by 1.609sec against Great Britain.
Both will be lining up in the team pursuit alongside Martina Fidanza and Letizia Paternoster.
Jonathan Milan (Italy)
Fellow Italian Jonathan Milan holds multiple track cycling medals across European and World Championships. The pursuits are where he shines, with his ability to hold a consistently powerful speed and hit ferociously high watts pushing him to European titles in both the individual and team pursuits in 2023.
At the last World Championships, Milan was part of the team that came second in the team pursuit against Denmark. He won the bronze medal match against Portugal’s Ivo Oliveira in the individual pursuit.
Rui Oliveira (Portugal)
Rui Oliveira made history with Iúri Leitão this summer, winning Portugal’s first track cycling gold medal. The pair rode to victory in the madison after winning all four of the final sprints on offer, pushing Italy off the top spot.
Oliveira will be taking part in the omnium and the madison at Worlds, the latter alongside his brother Ivo, who himself is a bronze medallist at the 2022 World Championships in the individual pursuit.
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