Mark Stewart and Neah Evans took electric wins in front of a sold-out crowd at the Grand Finale of the Track Champions League [TCL] in London, both slipping away into moves and winning their respective scratch races to ignite the 5,500-strong crowd in the Lee Valley VeloPark.
The Olympic velodrome from London 2012 was the venue for the final two rounds of the TCL, eleven years after it saw the same electric atmosphere welcome British legends to victory – Chris Hoy, Laura Trott and Victoria Pendleton, to name a few. The faces may have been different, but the electric atmosphere was all the same.
The Olympic velodrome roared every time a British rider moved, be that from the rider's enclosure to the start line or one inch past their competitor in any race.
Stewart and Evans were the only British race winners on the night, with headline Briton Katie Archibald missing out on the individual races, but the superstar track rider did reclaim her overall TCL endurance title to similar acclamation.
Stewart's victory brought the crowd to life early into the night’s proceedings after disappointing sprint heats for the home nation saw World Champion Emma Finucane knocked out of contention.
The Scot slipped away into a cooperative group of four and took the final scratch race of the Track Champions League and his first victory of the series, with compatriot Will Perrett completing a British one-two, much to the crowd's delight.
The 20-lap race started with the eventual men’s endurance winner Dylan Bibic (Canada) keeping a close eye on scratch race World Champion Will Tidball, especially after the Brit closed the gap at the top of the overall in round 4 with a victory in the elimination race. They continued to cancel each other out allowing Stewart and Perrett to move off the front in the opportunistic winning move.
The quartet worked well in tandem, with Stewart saying he “felt like we were a team against the bunch," staying away with seven laps left to race and fighting it out for the win with Bibic and Tidball forced to settle for sixth and tenth respectively.
“I knew with four laps to go we had a big enough gap, and I love that bit where you're thinking – right, how can I beat these guys,” said Stewart admitting these were millisecond-long decisions in the heat of a race. “To be able to, in one lap, turn around that thought process and execute it is pretty cool.”
Stewart was surprised by the leaders successfully working together, admitting that his full commitment came as a result of knowing he would get at least fourth which would still be a solid result, but he joked about not being so sure about Spanish rider Sebastián Mora.
“I was surprised [by the cooperation]. Mora sometimes can be really annoying. He’s a wee bit of a pest at times, he sits on your wheel, but there he was fantastic. We all worked together well and for a few laps, it felt like we were a team against the bunch.
“I had so much fun here [at the Track Champions League]. Last year I didn’t quite realise the prestige that this racing brings. Personally, you want to do well but it's also a big media presence and a great opportunity to get your name out there. I came into this year in really good condition, but I suffered a nasty crash and to be honest, since then I’ve been working my way back ever since.”
Stewart’s heroics were backed up in the next final, as fellow Scot Neah Evans followed suit and took the women’s scratch race in a similar fashion. Evans had been on the journey back from illness, after contracting a virus in Berlin and being forced to miss round three in Paris and take some days off the bike.
The former Olympic silver medallist similarly broke from the bunch after chasing down a lone escapee herself, before the duo pulled away and with five laps to go, the gap was insurmountable from behind. Evans struck out for glory on her own, not wanting to leave it to a sprint and rode into the roars of the electric British crowd, able to celebrate her win over the line.
“I saw Mark [Stewart] do it and I was like well I’ve got to do it now,” joked Evans.
“[The crowd] was mega! It’s one of those cliche things about the home crowd cheering you on, but it really does help. I knew I didn’t have the sharpest legs for the sprint, but then the crowd started roaring and I had to give it everything.
“I didn't make the move but thought I wanted to be with it. In a World Cup, you’d only occasionally get away with a move like that. That's the thing with Track Champions League, it does have this different dynamic with the racing.”
Leader of the women’s endurance competition and compatriot Katie Archibald was active from the start by hopping onto moves and even upping the pace herself before Evans and Olivija Baleisyte moved away. She would come home the best of the rest in fourth after Lara Gillespie made a late charge to chase down Evans and extended her lead at the top over Norway’s Anita Stenberg.
The fandom continued throughout the evening as Joe Truman and Finucane made it into the final events of the night, the Keirin finals, but neither could fend off the champion riders Ellesse Andrews and Harrie Lavreysen, who showed their class and solidified their positions at the top of the sprint classifications overall.
Home fans had one last thing to cheer for as Archibald was welcomed with huge roars onto the podium as the overall women's endurance winner to end the night. This closed out the fifth round and third series of the Track Champions League, each of which had its final round in London with the Olympic Velodrome’s legacy living on 11 years later.
