Although it has previously hosted World Cup events and even the Olympic Games, China will host, from Wednesday, August 21 to Sunday, August 25, for the first time a World Championships, this time in the junior category, as a prelude to those to be held in 2026 in Shanghai, already in the senior category.
The venue will be Luoyang, a historic city of more than 6 million inhabitants in the Chinese province of Henan, which has become one of the most important tourist attractions in China, and one of the main ‘bases’ of the booming Chinese track cycling, where less than two months ago the world record in the women’s team sprint was broken.
One of the reasons for the speed of the velodrome is that it is located in a Chinese city at an altitude of 1,000 meters. It is a wooden track, of the more usual 250 meters rope, and 7.55 wide, with maximum inclinations of 46°69′ on the cant and minimum of 13°15′ on the straight.
This World Cup will be the 49th in history in this category, which has already visited all continents and in the case of Asia it does so for the fourth time, after having stopped in South Korea (Seoul 2014), Kazakhstan (Astana 2015) and Israel (Tel Aviv 2022).
This time there will be 282 cyclists representing 49 registered countries, including Belarus and Russia, although their cyclists are listed as AIN. A somewhat lower participation than last year in terms of cyclists, although not in terms of nations, given the obligation to appear in this event, even with only one rider, in order to participate in the absolute World Cup in Ballerup.
Among them, seven cyclists who already wore the rainbow last year in Cali: the Australians Ryan Tayte and Nicole Duncan, the French Mélanie Dupin and Léane Tabu, the Italian Anita Baima and the Colombian Stefany Cuadrado, and of course the Spanish Rubén Sánchez, who also comes with the jersey of continental champion in the same discipline of elimination.
Other men to watch out for are the French Etienne Oliviero, Mathias Sylvanise, Tristan Favennec, the Germans Messane Bräuttigam, Judith Friederike Rottmann, Magdalena Leis, the Italians Davide Stella, Eros Sporzon, Ares Costa or Cristian Fantini, the British Viorica Georgette Rand, Oliver Pettifer, William Salter, Isobel Carys Lloyd and Car Fergusson or the Austrian Heimo Fugger, all of them European champions, the Belgians Larke Expeels and Nolan Huysmans or the Dutch Collin Westbroek and Jenna Van Tongeren.
The Australians Lilyth Jones, Will Holmes and Liliya Tatarinoff, the New Zealanders Caitlin Kelly, Magnus Jamieson and Matthew Davidson, the Colombians Nicolas Olivera and Luciana Osorio or the Canadians Jonathan Hinse or Cole Dempster are other pistards who will shine, without having reference to the Russians, due to their international isolation, although last year they finished second in the medal standings.
The competition program, with the usual 22 titles at stake, is as follows:
Wednesday 21 (10:00 to 13:07 and 18:00 to 20:57).
Women’s Team Sprint
Men’s Team Sprint
Women’s Team Pursuit (qualifying and first round)
Men’s Team Pursuit (qualifier and first round)
Women’s Scratch
Thursday 22 (10:30 to 13:49 and 18:00 to 21:08)
Women’s Sprint (from 200 meters to quarter-finals)
Men’s Keirin
Men’s Scratch
Women’s elimination
Women’s Team Pursuit (finals)
Men’s Team Pursuit (finals)
Friday 23 (10:30 to 15:53 and 18:00 to 20:51)
Women’s Sprint (semifinals and finals)
Men’s sprint (from 200 meters to quarterfinals)
Women’s Omnium
Men’s pursuit
Men’s point scoring
Saturday 24th (10:30 to 14:39 and 18:00 to 21:19)
Men’s Sprint (semifinals and finals)
Women’s 500m time trial
Men’s Omnium
Women’s pursuit
Sunday 25th (9:30 to 13:14 and 15:00 to 18:04)
Women’s Keirin
Men’s Kilometer
Men’s elimination
Women’s Madison
Men’s Madison