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Dylan Bibic wins both endurance races in UCI Track Champions League

Sarah van Dam earns first win in Paris on a big night for Canada

November 4, 2023
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Dylan Bibic has won races in the three consecutive rounds of the 2023 UCI Track Champions League. On Sunday’s third and middle round at the 2024 Olympic Games venue Vélodrome St-Quentin-en-Yvelines, 25 km west of the center of Paris, Bibic triumphed in both the scratch and the elimination competitions. Compatriot Mathias Guillemette came runner-up in the scratch, his best performance of the series so far.

Sarah van Dam, bagging her first victory of the season, and Maggie Coles-Lyster, rose in the women’s endurance category to match Bibic and Guillemette’s scratch one-two feat.

The Standings Before Saturday

Going into the middle round, Bibic was in second place in the men’s endurance category, three points adrift of Japan’s Eiya Hashimoto. Bibic won the elimination race in Spain and the scratch in Germany. After their runner-up spots in Berlin, Maggie Coles-Lyster sat fourth in the women’s endurance, while Sarah van Dam was sixth. Kelsey Mitchell was in fourth in the women’s sprint category.

Bibic breaks away with an Austrian in Berlin’s elimination race.

Genest and Mitchell were the first Canucks to ride the Vélodrome St-Quentin-en-Yvelines boards on Saturday in the women’s individual sprint first round. Mitchell was matched up with Britisher Katy Marchant and Ukraine Alla Biletska. The Canadian was in the middle for the first lap. The Ukrainian went long, but Mitchell passed her on the outside on the final lap and then held off the Brit. In her heat Genest had the company of Lithuanian Migle Lendel and top-ranked Kiwi Ellesse Andrews. She led out on the inside all the way into the last lap but could not hold off her competitors.

Mitchell won Heat 3 of the first round.

In the women’s sprint semi-final, Mitchell drew German Alessa-Catriona Propster and Chinese rider Lijuan Wang. Mitchell sat on the back before suddenly swinging up the track. She grabbed a large gap heading into the final lap and then staved off any challenge. She would face Andrews in the final. The Olympic champion came off the rail and took her preferred second position, but she couldn’t push by the Kiwi.

Bibic and countryman Mathias Guillemette faced the 20-lap men’s scratch. For the first few laps the riders were content to take their pulls and swing up the track. With 11 laps to go, two Dutch riders and an Austrian inched away, but it was all sewn up after four circuits. It would be a bunch sprint with the Canadians throwing the bikes for the victory. Bibic claimed the top spot in the endurance table. Bibic also took the Spain scratch and the Berlin elimination.

Bibic and Guillemette threw their bikes.

Coles-Lyster and van Dam started with the women’s scratch. It was all together and cagey in the first half. Van Dam launched her attack with six laps to go, bumping Coles-Lyster in the process, and prised out a massive lead, most of which she maintained right through the line. Coles-Lyster was the fastest in the bunch sprint. Coles-Lyster was now second in the endurance category and van Dam fifth.

Could Bibic do the double? The men’s elimination race carried the round into its second half. Incredibly, Hashimoto was the first to be pulled. The Canucks held tough into the elite eight. Guillemette made it into the sixpack and then saw the hook. Bibic survived the final four. The Spaniard sat up. It would be Canada vs Belgium. Bibic led out into the final lap and then dispatched his opponent Jules Hesters.

Mitchell and Genest reappeared to follow the derny in the women’s keirin, Genest getting Wang and Biletska in her Heat 1 six. From Position 3 after the derny pulled off, the Canadian tried to come around Wang in the final lap but bumped her and then couldn’t recover to place in one of the first two spots to advance. In Heat 3, Mitchell fell over on her way to line up and had to be extracted from her bike. Once underway, she started from Position 4. When the derny pulled away, Mitchell went to the front but was overwhelmed on the outside in the final half lap.

Canada’s big night ended with the women’s elimination race. A Kiwi was the first to leave the track. Again there were two Canadians in the elite eight, but that’s as far as van Ham went. Coles-Lyster was the next to get the yank.

There’s a double round in London starting on Friday to conclude the season.