By Martyn Herman
PALMA, Spain (Reuters) – Emma Finucane was flying under the radar when she raced in last year’s UCI Track Champions League but a year on she returns to Palma’s velodrome unmistakable wearing a rainbow jersey after becoming Britain’s latest sprint world champion.
The 20-year-old Welsh speedster blasted to gold at the world championships in Glasgow just over two months ago — ending her country’s 10-year wait for a women’s sprint world champion.
She has not raced competitively since that memorable night in the Chris Hoy Arena, but will return to the boards in Mallorca on Saturday needing no introduction.
The UCI Track Champions League, with rounds in Palma, Berlin, Paris and two in London, features many of the top sprint and endurance track cyclists and Finucane is relishing the challenge of backing up her Glasgow heroics.
“Last year was a bit of a shock to the system as I didn’t really know how it all worked,” Welsh rider Finucane told reporters at a press conference ahead of the opening night.
“Coming in this year it’s obviously a bit different and coming in as world champion I’m really excited to race and try new things and get back on the boards.”
Finucane’s whirlwind rise means she is already being tipped as one of the favourites for gold at next year’s Paris Olympics. The last British woman to win the gold in the sprint was Victoria Pendleton at the Beijing Games in 2008.
One of her rivals in Paris will be Canada’s reigning Olympic champion Kelsey Mitchell who will be up against Finucane in Mallorca on Saturday, while keirin world champion Ellesse Andrews from New Zealand will also be on the start line.
In the often-tactical discipline of track sprinting where victories sometimes are decided by the width of a tyre, Finucane knows she now has a target on her back but says the Champions League also offers the chance to do her homework on rivals.
“Last year in the Track Champions League I was racing Kelsey Mitchell and Mathilde Gros all the time I gained so much knowledge and momentum for the worlds and going in to the Olympics I can use this in the same way,” she said.
Finucane will have British team mates Sophie Capewell and Katy Marchant up against her while Germany’s European champion Alessa-Catriona Propster is also in the field.
Dutch Olympic and world champion Harrie Lavreysen will be the man to beat in the men’s sprint competition over the next few weeks and he will be eager to win back the Champions League title after Australia’s Matthew Richardson won it last year.
Britain’s two-time Olympic champion Katie Archibald will start favourite in the women’s endurance competition while Swiss Claudio Imhof will be defending his men’s endurance crown.
The quickfire format sees each round consisting of a sprint and keirin competition for the sprint riders while the endurance riders compete in scratch and elimination races.
Points are awarded depending on where riders finish in the individual races with the champions decided in the two London rounds in London in November.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis)
