The track cycling is well underway at the Olympic velodrome, and, judging by all the questions we've received, it's got you all thoroughly baffled. We've probably left it too late to fully explain the omnium, as we'd have needed to start several weeks before the Olympics. But the sprint competitions and men's keirin are still going on. Taking the sprint event first, this is what you need to know.
Jason Kenny rides for Great Britain against multiple world champion Gregory Baugé in the gold medal race of the sprint competition in the next few minutes - so you'll want to pay attention to see whether Kenny can win Britain's 18th gold of these games! Meanwhile, Victoria Pendleton is progressing smoothly through the women's draw and should be battling for gold tomorrow.
Let's start at the beginning. In the sprint, the two riders are drawn in lanes - one in the sprinter's lane near the inside of the track, and the other higher up. For simplicity's sake, we'll call them the top and bottom riders. The starting position for the bottom rider is slightly further forward than that of the top rider, so they will be expected to lead out the race. Simply put, the first rider to cross the line at the end of three laps wins the sprint. It's a "best of three" format at this late stage of the competition, so the first rider to win two sprints will take gold. Both Kenny and Baugé won their semi-final rounds 2-0.
While the format of the event is very straightforward, the tactics are a little more complicated. There are no restrictions as to when a rider can start to ride at full speed, so you might expect that either or both riders would choose to ride the full three laps flat out, challenging the other to respond. However, just like athletics, sprinters are not usually built to maintain speed over long distances, and this would be a very risky strategy because the responding rider could use the other's slipstream to catch up and eventually overtake. Bear in mind that riding in the slipstream of another rider can reduce the effort required by up to 50%.
Instead, you're much more likely to see the riders play a drawn-out game of cat and mouse. Apart from the effect of slipstreaming, the two crucial points to keep in mind are that riding around the centre of the track means covering a shorter distance, and that using the shape of the velodrome by swinging down from the top of the track will increase a rider's speed.
Let's look at tactics in a little more detail. It's impossible to say what the "best" tactic would be for any given race, so we can only try to explain how a typical race might shape up. The bottom rider will usually ride most of the first two laps looking over their shoulder to keep an eye on their opponent. The top rider will try to sneakily gain as much height as they can compared to their opponent, in order to increase the burst of acceleration they can produce when they eventually decide to start their sprint by swooping down. The bottom rider will try to mark the top rider's moves by staying close to them. The bottom rider can try to force the top rider's hand by steering them up to the top of the track as slowly as possible, removing any possibility that the top rider could swoop down and capture the initiative by overtaking. Equally, if they see that the top rider is hanging back to give themselves more room to work with, the bottom rider could put in an early burst of speed to try to gain an advantage over the top rider. In an ideal world, the top rider would manage to start their sprint while the bottom rider's back is turned, giving them a slight advantage and propelling them to take the shortest and quickest route around the track.
Without going into technical detail, it's worth remembering that riders can be disqualified for bumping and barging each other to try to secure a better position on the track. However, you might still see the bottom rider sticking their elbows out to make themselves a slightly bigger obstacle, as the margins in this event are so small that this can decisively increase the distance that the top rider would need to cover to overtake. Crashes do happen, and when they happen at this speed, they happen hard.
The sprint will usually start with a little over a lap to go. As soon as either rider puts in a decisive acceleration, the other must respond as quickly as they can. At that point, it's a straight race to glory at the finish line. With races frequently decided by photo finishes and thousandths of a second, this is definitely the most exciting event to watch at the velodrome. So tune in, don't blink, and enjoy it while it lasts!
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