UCI Track Champions League 2024: Team GB's Katie Archibald among winners after cancellation of London finale
Published 11/12/2024 at 17:37 GMT
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Following the cancellation of the 2024 UCI Track Champions League Grand Finale in London, the four winners have been announced. Great Britain's Katie Archibald had already secured the Women’s Endurance League, but Dylan Bibic (Men’s Endurance League), Alina Lysenko (Women’s Sprint League) and Harrie Lavreysen (Men’s Sprint League) have now been declared champions based on the final points tallies.
Highlights: Archibald, Finucane win in TCL finale before racing cancelled due to crash
Video credit: TNT Sports
The full list of winners of the 2024 UCI Track Champions League have been announced following the cancellation of Saturday’s Grand Finale in London.
Great Britain’s Katie Archibald had already wrapped up the Women’s Endurance League, but the remaining three champions have now been declared.
After another incredible season of world-class competition, Archibald (Women’s Endurance League), Canada’s Dylan Bibic (Men’s Endurance League), Alina Lysenko (Women’s Sprint League) and the Netherlands’ Harrie Lavreysen (Men’s Sprint League) were crowned.
The series did not conclude with its usual ceremony, as Saturday’s Grand Finale was cancelled following an incident during the Women’s Keirin heats.
The affected riders and spectators received immediate medical attention on site, with all but Katy Marchant (Great Britain) leaving the venue.
Marchant was escorted to the hospital, where X-rays revealed a fractured radius and ulna in her right forearm, along with two dislocated fingers. She is now back home and receiving care from her medical team.
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'Everyone is OK' - Blythe gives update after TCL finale cancelled due to crash
Video credit: TNT Sports
With riders and spectators’ safety being the top priority, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Sports, British Cycling, Lee Valley VeloPark, and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) made the unanimous decision to suspend all further racing for the evening, thus concluding the 2024 series.
At the time of the incident and the event cancellation, the Women’s Endurance League had been completed, with Archibald securing the title after winning the Scratch race.
The other three leagues were still ongoing but are now considered final based on the points at the time of cancellation, as agreed by the UCI Commissaires’ panel.
"It means a lot to win the Endurance League," Archibald, who won four races across the series, said.
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"It’s winning the overall, but you want to do it with rides that you’re proud of, and I’m very proud of both the Scratch and the Elimination and that actually means just as much as winning the overall.
"Some of the best memories I’ve had have been at this race, in the event Finale, I’ve had some of the loudest crowds I’ve ever heard and it gets a bit addictive! That’s the high I was chasing.
"I was on my knees by the end [of the Elimination] so I’m happy to have given it as much as I did."
Still just 21, Bibic has had a meteoric rise to the top of the sport, winning his first rainbow jersey in the Scratch race last year on his Tissot UCI Track World Championships debut.
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‘He is flying!’ – Bibic records statement elimination win
Video credit: TNT Sports
This year he took bronze in the Elimination race, just a month before the start of the UCI Track Champions League and carried that world-class form into the series.
"It feels great to be lifting this trophy once again and to have come away with multiple race wins this season," Bibic said.
"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."
In the Sprint League, women’s champion Lysenko dazzled on her debut in the event, capturing an astonishing six race wins out of nine, including a history-making run of five in a row, while Lavreysen capped off an incredible season to claim the men’s title.
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