Canada’s Guillemette wins elimination race at 2022 UCI Track Champions League opener

Canadian Mathias Guillemette won the elimination race in the opening round of the 2022 UCI Track Cycling Champions League Saturday in Mallorca, Spain. Kelsey Mitchell bounced back from relegation in the first round of the women’s individual sprint to come runner-up in the keirin. Sarah van Dam and Maggie Coles-Lyster both enjoyed good performances, taking fourth places in the scratch and elimination respectively.

This season there are five rounds instead of four, including back to back days in London, as in 2021. Parallel to the number of rounds, there were five Canadians in the league, one more than last year. They were Tokyo Olympic Games gold medalist Mitchell, world scratch champion Dylan Bibic, Maggie Coles-Lyster, van Dam and Guillemette.

Go go power rangeeeeers ?❤️??

How cool is that? Team Canada came to the UCI Track Champions League with custom painted bikes that look awesome ?

And guess what, you can even buy them, check out @CyclingCanada's profile for more info.

? @PaulineBallet #UCITCL pic.twitter.com/w93yGVwUIJ

— UCI Track Champions League (@UCITCL) November 11, 2022

The day started with three-up women’s individual sprint first round. Last season Mitchell was third all around in the sprint category, in which there are two races: individual sprint and keirin. Last season she took the top keirin honours in Mallorca. She was Canada’s lone participant in the sprint side of things.

Mitchell was thrown in with Dutch speedster Hetty van de Wouw and Irish rider Orla Walsh in Heat 3. Mitchell took Position 3 and then moved up the track to grab the front going into the final lap. The Canadian had little trouble taking the win, but then word came that she was relegated for dropping into the sprinter’s lane too early.

Bibic got a chance to show off his rainbow jersey in the men’s scratch, one of two races in the endurance category, the other being the elimination. The Champions League scratch is pretty straight forward: 18 riders–including Guillemette–on the boards for 20 laps, with the winner the first over the line.

This brief format elicits breakaways. It was an escapee, Brit Mark Stewart, who triumphed. Guillemette placed ninth and Bibic was 16th.

How would Coles-Lyster and van Dam fare in the women’s scratch? Canadian road and crit champion Coles-Lyster finished just off the podium last season in endurance after a good start with the top performance in the Mallorca scratch race. She was recently fourth in the omnium at the World Championships in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Again, there were 20 laps to race. After a relaxed start, Katie Archibald tried to stir things up by powering away, but her effort was short-lived. Archibald took the top honours, while van Dam was fourth and Coles-Lyster placed 14th.

Bibic and Guillemette remounted for the men’s elimination, the Race of the Dreaded Blinking Light. The eighteen endurance riders faced thirty-six laps with a sprint every second lap, the last rider eliminated. Roy Eefting of the Netherlands yelled at himself for being the first to go, with Bibic following hard on his heels. Guillemette stayed on the inside and found himself in the final five. And there there were two. When the Canadian accelerated in the final sprint, American Gavin Hoover had no answer.

Mitchell came back to follow the derny in the women’s keirin first round. Mitchell was in Heat 2, which had to be restarted after British rider Emma Finucane pulled off her right crank arm.

They headed out without her. Mitchell attacked with two laps remaining and won at a canter.

In the women’s keirin final, Mitchell had fire in her belly. When the derny peeled off Mitchell started moving up from the back. She grabbed Martha Bayona’s wheel for the entire final lap, but just couldn’t come around the Colombian.

Could the Canadian women match Guillemette’s accomplishment in the women’s elimination? Everyone gasped when Katie Archibald was the first to get the boot. One sprint was so close that the judges decided no one should get the hook. The Canadians hung tough and made it into the last nine. There were two Canadians and two Americans in the final five, but van Dam and Coles-Lyster were the next to go.

The next round is next Saturday in Berlin, Germany.