Latest news with #TrackWorldCup
BBC News
24-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Track Champions League scrapped after four years
Track cycling's Champions League has been scrapped four years after its launch. Established in 2021, the event was started in a bid to attract new fans to the sport with light shows, music and a faster format. The Track Champions League featured the world's best endurance and sprint cyclists competing across multiple rounds in different European cities, but only three hosts staged events in 2024 - one in Paris, two in Apeldoorn and two in London. In a statement, the sport's world governing body, the International Cycling Union (UCI), and its media partner Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) said they would instead "revitalise" the existing Track Nations Cup to become the Track World Cup. "Over the next three years we will focus on coverage of the UCI Track World Cup," UCI president David Lappartient said."I am confident that track cycling will continue to grow in popularity, leading up to and beyond the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games." The Track Nations Cup has previously been a three-round competition but only one was scheduled this year, in Konya, Turkey, earlier this rebranding as the Track World Cup will also feature three rounds, with its programme consisting of Olympic events as well as the elimination race. The series will be used in part as qualification for the World Championships and the Olympic Games. The most recent Champions League event took place at Lee Valley VeloPark in London in December, but had to be abandoned after a crash into the crowd involving Great Britain's Katy Marchant.
Reuters
24-03-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
UCI Champions League scrapped after four years
LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) - Track cycling's Champions League has been scrapped four years after its launch was hailed as a mind-blowing new way to present a sport often unfathomable to the general public. A joint statement on Monday from cycling's governing body the UCI and media partner Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Sports confirmed the 2024 season was the last. WBD originally committed to an eight-year partnership but the statement said it was "re-defining" its involvement in the promotion of track cycling. The UCI said the Track Nations Cup would be revitalised and become the Track World Cup from 2026 and that the collaboration with WBD would continue over the next three years. "Over the next three years we will focus on coverage of the UCI Track World Cup," UCI president David Lappartient said. "I am confident that track cycling will continue to grow in popularity, leading up to and beyond the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games." The UCI Track Champions League featured the world's top endurance and sprint riders competing across multiple rounds in cities such as Palma, London, Berlin and Paris from November-December with the points leaders in each category being crowned overall champions and pocketing 25,000 euros. Spectacular light shows, music and a rapid and simplified format were meant to appeal to fans new to track cycling and designed to be TV-friendly. The two rounds held in London each year were hugely popular with large crowds but other venues found it harder to sell tickets. Only three hosts staged a Champions League round in 2024. The Champions League era came to an abrupt halt at the second London round in December when a bad crash involving Britain's Olympic champion Katy Marchant meant the rest of the night's programme was cancelled. The UCI Track World Cup will consist of three rounds, with a program featuring the Olympic events as well as the elimination race, a format that has proved popular with the public. The series will form part of the qualification process for the world championships and Olympic Games. Bids are being accepted by the UCI for hosts for the rounds of the 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions.
The Independent
24-03-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Track Champions League axed after four years in cycling calendar shake-up
Track cycling's flagship event, the Track Champions League, has been axed after four years in a surprise move by the sport's governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), and its broadcaster Warner Bros. Discovery. The league was inaugurated in 2021 as an annual exhibition series of five fast-paced rounds taking place across Europe, with many of the world's top riders taking part in either endurance and sprint categories. The series made tweaks to the Olympic format of some disciplines with the intention of making track cycling appealing to a wider audience, and it drew in large crowds throughout the 2025 edition, with the final round - held at London's Lee Valley velodrome - sold out. The 2024 women's endurance category was won by Scotland's multiple Olympic and world champion Katie Archibald, with Brits Emma Finucane, Matthew Richardson, and Will Perrett all taking individual victories over the course of the series. Last year's edition had no victory ceremony as a crash brought the final round to an abrupt end, with Britain's Katy Marchant flying over the velodrome's protective barrier and suffering two arm fractures. A statement released on Monday said that the broadcaster WBD Sports would 'redefine its involvement in the promotion of track cycling,' with the decision spelling the end for the Track Champions League. The decision comes towards the beginning of a new Olympic cycle, with riders starting down the long road to the Los Angeles Games in 2028. At the same time, the UCI has announced a revamp of the Track Nations Cup, a season-long competition taking place over three rounds and itself a rebrand of the Track Cycling World Cup, which ran until 2021. This year there was only one round, in Konya, Turkey, earlier in March. The competition will be renamed the Track World Cup from 2026, with three rounds each season and points accrued throughout the series determining qualification for the annual World Championships and the Olympics. The decision appears to have been made to streamline the track calendar while maintaining TV coverage, with Warner Bros. Discovery to cover the renamed Track World Cup in place of the Track Champions League, as the UCI seeks to raise the profile of the series and track cycling as a sport. The shelving of the Track Champions League comes during a turbulent time for live coverage of cycling. to broadcast the Tour de France from 2026 means that this year's edition will be the last to have free-to-view coverage. Cycling more broadly has gone behind a more expensive paywall since the dissolution of Eurosport in the UK and move of Eurosport's content to TNT Sports - under the Warner Bros. umbrella - at the end of February, with viewers hit with a 344% price hike.
