The UCI just announced some big changes to track racing

On Wednesday, the UCI announced several changes and modifications to events in all disciplines, but three key changes to track races are significant.

For years, men raced 4 km in the individual pursuit, and women 3 km. As of January 1, 2025, that will change: Women will race the same distance as the men. For many in the sport, that change has been a long time coming. In track running, for example, women don’t race 1250 m and men 1500. There’s no 75 m dash at the Olympics. The change also means that fans can appreciate the speed of the top women better. “It’s really exciting as the 4 km is a great benchmark,” Chris Reid, the executive director of the National Cycling Institute Milton, said. “You’ll really get to appreciate just how fast, say, a Chloé Dygert is.”

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The same thing is happening for the kilo event. Historically, women did half the distance: 500 m.
As per the UCI, “Equal distance for men and women (1 km). Removal of the 500 m wording and updates throughout the regulations to reflect the change.” (Man, those guys in Switzerland have a way with words. So yeah, we can just call it the women’s kilo as of January 1, 2025.)

The UCI has also created parity in distance with the scratch race. Except it hasn’t increased the women’s length–they’ve decreased the men’s. Both men’s and women’s races will be 10 km. Another change, that according to Reid, could make for some exciting racing. “I think that the men’s race will be super fast, similar to what they did in Nordic skiing, shorten the events,” he says.

That change will also come into effect on New Year’s Day, 2025. So mark it on your calendar.