Track cyclist Harrie Lavreysen has secured the final victory in the Champions League among the sprinters in London. Although the world champion lost the final of the sprint to Matthew Richardson on the fifth and final day of competition, he scored enough points to put his great Australian rival at an unbridgeable disadvantage before the last number. The Brabander then ended the tournament in style by winning the keirin.
Lavreysen won the sprint tournament on three of the five Champions League evenings. He lost to Richardson last week on the Olympic track in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and that happened again to Lavreysen on the final evening. On the keirin he was untouchable four times.
“The Champions League is starting to get bigger,” winner Lavreysen said afterwards at Eurosport. “This prize is becoming more and more meaningful. I continue to surprise myself. I did not go into this tournament with great expectations, but I still managed to perform consistently at a high level.”
Among the women, victory in the sprint classification went to New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews. Canadian Dylan Bibic won the classification of the endurance events, consisting of a scratch and an elimination race. The Dutchman Philip Heijnen finished fifth. He scored a lot of points with his third place on the elimination race in London. The British Katie Archibald also gave the crowd at the Lee Valley Velodrome something to celebrate. She was crowned winner of the women’s endurance classification.
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