CW's Dummies' Guide to... Track racing

• Friday, 7 October 2011
• Lionel Birnie
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How does track racing work? We explain the events...

Track racing can seem confusing - particularly for fans just getting interested - so here's Cycling Weekly's handy guide. If you have not paid attention to track racing before now, this is a perfect chance to get acquainted.

Read on to find out how each race works, what the peculiar rules are and who are the reigning world (Apeldoorn 2011) and Olympic (Beijing 2008) champions. Maybe we'll even help you understand the Madison...

THE EVENTS

Sprint

SPRINT
Matches are contested between two riders who cover three laps of the track. The first rider over the line wins the race, best of three races wins the match. The top 16 riders qualify for the knockout stages with a flying 200-metre time trial. Tactics play a huge part in the sprint racing. Track stands - where the riders come to a standstill in a bid to get their rival to the front to lead out the sprint - are common, as are sudden turns of speed.

2011 Men's world champion Gregory Bauge (France)
2011 Women's world champion Anna Meares (Australia)

2008 Men's Olympic champion Chris Hoy (Great Britain)
2008 Women's Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton (Great Britain)

Team Sprint

TEAM SPRINT
This used to be known as the Olympic Sprint before the name was changed to ease confusion. The team sprint sees a team of three riders race against each other over three laps of the track. The first rider gets the trio out of the start gate and up to speed before peeling off after a lap. The leading rider must complete a lap and swing up in a designated zone 15 metres either side of the finish line. The second rider takes over the pace for the middle lap before the third rider finishes off. The quickest team over the three laps wins. One false start is allowed but the team must get away cleanly at the second attempt. Last year saw the debut of the women's team sprint, with pairs of competitors racing.

2011 Men's world champions France
2011 Women's world champions Australia

2008 Men's Olympic champions Great Britain (Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny, Jamie Staff)
2008 Women's Olympic champions NA

Keirin

KEIRIN
This is the one with the motor bike - called a Derny - that paces a field of up to seven riders (though typically six in championship finals) round the track. The Derny leads the field for the first 1,400 metres taking the speed from 30 kilometres per hour up to 50 kilometres per hour (25kph to 40kph for women), before peeling off and leaving the riders to sprint it out. No one is allowed to go in front of the Derny as the riders battle for position before the sprint starts in earnest. Keirin racing is very popular in Japan, as popular as horse racing in Britain.

2011 Men's world champion Shane Perkins (Australia)
2011 Women's world champion Anna Meares (Australia)

2008 Men's Olympic champion Chris Hoy (Great Britain)
2008 Women's Olympic champion NA

Time Trial

TIME TRIALS
The simplest, purest track race - which makes it all the more baffling why the UCI decided to eliminate it from the Olympic programme when asked to drop an event to make way for BMX. The time trials continue as World Cup and World Championship events but with the sprinters focusing on the sprint and Keirin races - which are Olympic disciplines - instead, it's lost its lustre. The riders start individually and the quickest rider over one kilometre (men) and 500 metres (women) is the winner.

2011 Men's world champion Stefan Nimke (Germany)
2011 Women's world champion Olga Panarina (Belarus)

2004 Men's Olympic champion Chris Hoy (Great Britain)
2004 Women's Olympic champion Anna Meares (Australia)
Event not held at the 2008 Olympics

INDIVIDUAL PURSUIT
The men race over 4,000 metres, women over 3,000. In qualifying each rider covers the distance alone and is timed - very much like a time trial. The best finishers are then seeded and take part in a knock-out for the medals, starting on opposite sides of the track. The fastest two riders compete for gold, the third and fourth quickest go for bronze. If one rider catches an other, he or she automatically the winner, otherwise results are decided by times.

2011 Men's world champion Jack Bobridge (Australia)
2011 Women's world champion Sarah Hammer (USA)

2008 Men's Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain)
2008 Women's Olympic champion Rebecca Romero (Great Britain)

Team Pursuit

TEAM PURSUIT
Exactly the same theory as the individual race but with teams of four riders, each sharing the pace-making before swinging up the banking and settling in at the back of the line. The team's time is taken on the third rider across the line. The women's team pursuit made its debut as a World Championship event at Manchester in March over 3,000 metres for three riders.

2011 Men's world champions Australia
2011 Women's world champions Great Britain

2008 Men's Olympic champion Great Britain (Ed Clancy, Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas, Bradley Wiggins)
2008 Women's Olympic champion NA

POINTS RACE
This is a mass-start race. Qualifying tends to be over 15km, finals usually 30km or 40km. Intermediate sprints are held every ten laps, with five, three, two and one point on offer to the first four over the line. If a rider laps the field he gains 20 points. The rider with the most points at the end of the race wins with the finishing sprint only counting if riders are tied on points. Speed, concentration, endurance and tactical sense are all important for a good points race rider.

2011 Men's world champion Edwin Avila (Colombia)
2011 Women's world champion Tatsiana Sharakova (Belarus)

2008 Men's Olympic champion Joan Llaneras (Spain)
2008 Women's Olympic champion Marianne Vos (Netherlands)

Scratch race

SCRATCH RACE
Introduced to the World Cup and World Championship programmes in 2002, it's not an Olympic race but it is an exciting, mass-start all-out race. If no riders gain a lap during the race it comes down to a bunch sprint. The men race over 15km the women over 10km.

2011 Men's world champion Ho Ting Kwok (Hong Kong)
2011 Women's world champion Marianne Vos (Netherlands)

2008 Men's Olympic champion NA
2008 Women's Olympic champion NA

Madison: team-mates use a hand sling to change over

MADISON
The most complex but absorbing race on the track. Named after Madison Square Garden in New York where it was first made popular. Teams of two riders compete together to score points at the intermediate sprints, held every 20 laps, (5pts, 3pts, 2pts, 1pt to the first four), and gain laps by attacking. One member of each team is ‘in the race' at any one time, while the other circles at the top of the banking. The riders switch over to give each other a rest - or perhaps to put the better sprinter in as a sprint lap approaches. The rider must touch his team-mate to change over but usually this is done with a hand-sling to propel the other into the race. The team that covers the most laps wins, with points only counting to separate riders who finish on the same number of laps.

2011 Men's world champions Leigh Howard and Cameron Meyer (Australia)
2011 Women's world champions NA

2008 Men's Olympic champions Juan Esteban Curuchet & Walter Fernando Perez (Argentina)
2008 Women's Olympic champions NA

Omnium

OMNIUM
The Omnium is a multi-discipline event introduced in the 2010 World Championships. At World Championship level, the omnium currently consists of five disciplines. For men there is a 200m sprint, a 7.5km scratch race, a 3km individual pursuit, a 15km points race and a 1km time trial. For women the distances are shorter. Each rider's placings in the separate events are added together and the rider with the lowest total wins. A version of the omnium will be introduced for the first time in an Olympic Games in 2012, but the events are slightly different to those in the World Championships: a 250-metre time flying lap time trial, a 30km points race (20km for women), a 4km pursuit (3km for women), a 15km scratch race (10km for women) and a kilometre time trial (500m) and an elimination race.

2011 Men's world champion Michael Freiberg (Australia)
2011 Women's world champion Tara Whitten (Canada)

2008 Men's Olympic champion NA
2008 Women's Olympic champion NA

RELATED LINKS
Olympic Games London 2012 news section
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