Matthew Richardson takes lead after battle with Harrie Lavreysen, Mathilde Gros on brink of sprint title

Matthew Richardson (Australia) has taken the lead of the Men’s Sprint from Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) after a thrilling penultimate night at the 2022 UCI Track Champions League.

Lavreysen carried a two-point lead going into Friday, but had a surprising fourth place finished in the kerin, which was won by Richardson.

The Dutch rider bounced back by winning an epic individual sprint on a photo finish to reduce his deficit to Richardson to two points.

“To be sitting here in blue, I don’t even know how to describe it,” Richardson said.

“If you said before the league that I would be here I would said no way. It’s surreal.

“Me and Harrie have been the only guys to make the final every single time so I hope we are making it exciting for everyone. I’m certainly having fun!

“It’s all going to come down to who will make mistakes and being in the top two or three [in the final races] tomorrow.”

In the kerin, Richardson hit the front with one and half laps to go and nobody could come over the top of him.

He took a quick glance back and saw Lavreysen was struggling in fourth, as Santiago Ramirez and Steffan Botticher split the two title contenders.

The pair comfortably reached the final of the individual sprint for a fourth consecutive time at this year’s Track Champions League.

Lavreysen knew he had to win to give himself a realistic chance of winning the title and he did so after an epic sprint that involved two track stands, which are very rare in modern cycling, and a photo finish.

In the women’s sprint, France’s Mathilde Gros retained her nine-point advantage over the rest of the field so will become champion barring a disaster.

Gros didn’t have it all her own way though as she was beaten by Ukraine’s Olena Starikova in the individual sprint final in another thrilling finish.

Crucially, her two main rivals coming into the night, Martha Bayona and Kelsey Mitchell could only reach the semi-finals.

In the kerin, Gros showed she was human when she faded badly and finished last. Up front, Steffie Van Der Peet took an excellent win from Mitchell, who is now Gros’ closest challenger. Shanne Braspennincx is third, but 15 points adrift of Gros.