Kelsey Mitchell and Maggie Coles-Lyster stood on the final podiums at the end of Saturday’s last round of the 2022 UCI Track Champions League in London, England. London hosted back-to-back rounds of the Champions League on Friday and Saturday. Mitchell, who was third in the sprint category last season, was runner up in Saturday’s individual sprint to earn second overall. Maggie Coles-Lyster, fourth overall last year in endurance, claimed third on GC in the final race of the season. Sarah van Dam did well to come runner-up in the day’s scratch event.
The Situation Going into the Last Round
In Friday’s penultimate round, Kelsey Mitchell placed second in the keirin, while Mathias Guillemette was runner-up in the elimination. These results meant that Mitchell was second in the women’s sprint category, 9 points adrift of French leader Mathilde Gros and holding a six-point buffer over Shanne Braspennincx of the Netherlands. Guillemette was in third in men’s endurance, six points behind Claudio Imhof of Switzerland and Sebastian Mora of Spain. Brit Mark Stewart was peeking over Guillemette’s shoulder six points in arrears. Maggie Coles-Lyster, third in Friday’s elimination race and ninth in the scratch, was close to a final podium spot in the women’s endurance category, five points back of Norwegian Anita Stenberg.
Mitchell’s first test in the Lee Valley VeloPark was in the women’s keirin first round. Her heat was packed with tough customers, including Round 3 and 4 winner Steffie van der Peet and Taky Marie-Divine Kouame. Mitchell followed the derny in Position 5 but could not come around van der Peet and Kouame in the final lap. Gros and Braspennincx also made it through, the Dutch rider climbing over the Canadian in the overall standings. Mitchell now had Colombian Martha Bayona breathing down her neck for the final podium spot.
Coles-Lyster’s first chance to run down Stenberg came in the women’s scratch. She started on the blue band and van Dam drifted down from the railing. There were 20 laps of slicing and dicing ahead. Katie Archibald bolted on the others early in the festivities but she was brought to heel. Van Dam tried her luck with Australian Chloe Moran and they had a half lap with 7 circuits to go. The action was too cagey in the peloton to catch them. The Aussie prevailed. Coles-Lyster was fifth and moved a point closer to Stenberg. Van Dam jumped up a few spots to sixth in the GC.
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