He had had his doubts, said Harrie Lavreysen in the run-up to the sprint part, which was held this Sunday at the Track Cycling World Championships in Santiago, Chile. After all, he was no longer considered the fastest man in the world on a bicycle. That was his British competitor Matthew Richardson, who took the world record for the 200 meters from the Dutchman earlier this year.
Yet it was a striking statement from Lavreysen, who has proven himself to be the world’s best in the sprint over the past six years, is the reigning Olympic champion in three events, and is already, at the age of 28, seen as the best track cyclist ever. In Santiago there was also victory in the team sprint (with Roy van den Berg and Jeffrey Hoogland), the keirin and the kilometer time trial.
And it was therefore not surprising that Lavreysen again showed himself unapproachable in the sprint during this edition of the World Cup, in a direct duel with Richardson in the final; During the first stage he could no longer be overtaken from the front, the second time he passed the Briton a few meters before the finish.
“This is not normal,” Lavreysen said panting to the NOS, after he had won his twentieth world title on the track; a record. “I really felt great again today, I had prepared very well, this is wonderful.”
“This one is nice,” Lavreysen continued when asked about the win in the prestigious duel with Richardson. “It really kept me busy, you think about it during training,” he said about the world record of the naturalized Australian. “But I like that he challenges me. And it only makes this title even better.”
Nine times gold
The world title on the king’s number for Lavreysen was a fitting end to the most successful World Track Cycling World Championships ever for the Netherlands. With nine gold, two silver and two bronze medals, the previous top performance from 2019 (six gold, four silver, one bronze) was improved in both total number and gold medals.
A big surprise was ‘Hetty’s Hattrick’, the three gold medals of Hetty van de Wouw, who had not previously become world champion until this tournament. First, she won gold for the first time with the Dutch women in the team sprint, a historic achievement that she had worked towards for years together with Steffie van de Peet and Kimberley Kalee.
Van de Wouw then showed how good her shape was by winning the sprint, as the second Dutch woman since Ingrid Haringa in 1991, and also being the best in the kilometer time trial in a world record. After years of struggling to reach the top, she found success difficult to comprehend. “I really cannot believe how this tournament is going,” she said to the NOS after her victory in the sprint.
Fall hard
Lorena Wiebes showed herself to be a gold digger in the endurance events. The top road sprinter successfully defended her first world title on the track in the non-Olympic scratch event, which she surprisingly won last year. This time she showed that she is a serious candidate for Olympic honors in three years’ time in Los Angeles by also winning the Olympic omnium component.
Moreover, Wiebes was in a winning position with Lisa van Belle on the Olympic pairing race, when the duo crashed hard during a change. Van Belle escaped relatively unscathed, Wiebes may have suffered a fracture in her shoulder; Research in the Netherlands must reveal this.
In addition to the successes of Lavreysen, Van der Wouw and Wiebes, Jeffrey Hoogland won silver (kilometer time trial) and bronze (keirin) at this World Championship in Chile, Yanne Dorenbos silver (scratch) and Yoeri Havik bronze (pairing race).
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