Harrie Lavreysen, Ellesse Andrews, Emma Finucane et Matthew Richardson en conférence de presse quelques jours avant la 4e édition de la Champions League sur piste, qui débute ce samdi 23 novembre au Vélodrome National à Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, avant de se rendre à Apeldoorn puis à Londres.
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00:00Harry Lavresen from the Netherlands. He's currently in a van on the way to
00:07round one of the track champions league. Welcome everybody and
00:11Harry we'll start with you. Of course this has been a competition that developed your rivalry.
00:19How's it been for you coming to the different titles and competitions you've been winning?
00:24It's going to be a special one this year. There's been a lot going on this summer
00:31after Paris. I was pretty busy with a lot of stuff. Also at the world championships
00:39only four weeks ago. I had a little break after that two weeks off and I've been training again
00:45for two weeks now and I'm looking forward to some fun races. I don't want to focus too much
00:50on winning. I already had an amazing year and I just want to have some fun. Is that true? You
00:57don't want to focus on winning or is that taking the pressure a bit off yourself? How's the form?
01:01Because you said you've had a lot on this year. I'm still trying to ride on my Olympic form but
01:09it's not really possible in track cycling keeping your form for months. So that's going to be an
01:16interesting one. Of course when I'm on the start I try to focus on winning but now for now I'm
01:23really relaxed and already a great year. Matthew let's bring you in because of course you've got
01:29a different t-shirt in now. You're in the under the clouds in Manchester instead of the sunshine
01:33in Perth. How's that little enforced break been for you after the Olympics and how's your form?
01:39Yeah it's been really good. I've been fortunate in a way to not have to race the world
01:46given the nationality swap. So I'm in a bit of a different boat than Harry where I was able to have
01:51a bit of break after the games and then kind of the 10-12 weeks training in just to try and put
01:58myself in the best possible form for this. But again like it's been an interesting couple
02:03months you know relocating and trying to sell into a new environment and the stresses and
02:08challenges that come with that. So I've done everything I can but yeah I won't really know
02:14how much of a toll that that move has had on me until I start racing. And the Champions League
02:20to you what does it mean because I mean on the camera at least you might just be putting a good
02:23show on the telly for us but you seem to relish the rivalry in the competition. Yeah it's a really
02:28good race. I mean I've always enjoyed it every year that it's been on and every year that I've
02:32raced it. I remember when it first first came to light back in 2021. Unfortunately I couldn't race
02:39it and it was just yeah it was a race that looked super cool and super interesting and yeah I've
02:44loved it every year that I have raced it. So yeah it's just something a little bit different than
02:49normal track worlds or Olympics or World Cups things like that. So yeah it's just another
02:56another chance to kind of get some experience and race some of the best guys in the world.
03:00Fantastic and what about Elise from New Zealand? She's made her way over to Paris. She's in
03:05the hotel already by the velodrome standing by awaiting re-familiarizing herself with the track
03:10she knows very well. Elise you were brilliant last year. Looking forward to it again this year?
03:15Yeah very much so. I think we don't get a whole lot of opportunities to come from New Zealand
03:20and race in Europe so this is yeah one that I love to take up you know when it is presented
03:26to me. So yeah very excited for the next few weeks ahead. And what about the reception because
03:32I mean Kiwi track team probably I mean I'm not sure I don't have the statistics in front of me
03:36but it seemed like just about the best Olympics that you've had. Absolutely wonderful. What was
03:42it like going home? Yeah it was really special. It was the best Olympics for cycling New Zealand
03:48ever. The best Olympics for our New Zealand team Olympic team as a whole as well and so to be a
03:53part of that was really special. And I think yeah we are such a small country and so going home is
03:59really special and that you know there's lots of lots of people congratulating. But one thing
04:04that's the most favorite for me is I guess the impact that you have on the young Kiwis in New
04:09Zealand. And so I've had a few people like a little girl named her Teddy after me which was really
04:14cute. And then another family named a pet lamb after me. So I love the creativity that's out
04:20there in New Zealand. So I'm very fun. Fantastic. Well we hope that they're going to be tuning in
04:26to watch you against your rivals. And one of your big rivals is Emma Fanucan from Great Britain.
04:31Emma welcome along. Welcome back. It's been another big year for you as well. Obviously the Olympic
04:36cycle you know very important for Great Britain. It's you know where we come from it's always in
04:41the press. That's what it builds up. But track champions league what does that mean for you?
04:45How is it different? Yeah I love racing the track champions league. I think the last two years really
04:51helped me progress as a sprinter because you obviously get in the mix with all the best
04:57athletes in the world. And I think this year like what Harry said we've obviously had the Olympics
05:00then I went on to the world championships which I'm really glad I did. It was so much fun. But the
05:05track champions league is a place to learn a place to have fun. It's a completely different race format
05:10which I really enjoy. I really enjoy getting stuck into like the three ups and things like that. So
05:15yeah I'm looking forward to it this year. And it's sort of win or you're out as well isn't it?
05:20Every race matters. How's that mentally going on to the track knowing that you're not going to
05:25have a best of three for example in the sprints? Yeah it's a bit different because obviously
05:30it's similar to the world's where you have to win your race to get through and there aren't reps
05:36there aren't best of three and I think that makes it really interesting and there is a really solid
05:42group of sprinters for us as females so I'm really excited to race them and obviously every race is
05:47going to be pretty quick pretty fast. I don't know what form everyone's in so that's gonna be
05:51interesting to see where everyone's at especially as people have done worlds or haven't done worlds
05:56and breaks after the Olympics and things like that. So yeah I'm really looking forward to getting
06:00stuck in and seeing like where I'm at. Fantastic well that's a little introduction for all of you
06:05journalists watching on to everybody here. If you could put your questions in the Q&A box I'll
06:10translate them on. Benoit Wittek actually has asked the first question he said
06:15this is for Elise talking about opportunities to race in Europe. How did you build your program
06:21this season and how did you approach the Champions League after that great success at the Olympics
06:26and then missing the worlds? Yeah my program this season obviously was at the start of the year so
06:33that's how we started out and then moving forward to the games that was my highlight
06:39obviously major event for the year and so that's kind of what I planned my year around and deciding
06:44not to do the worlds was because I wanted all of my physical and mental energy to be in that
06:49competition and then to be able to come home rest reset you know there's lots of things that are
06:54important to me outside of cycling. Obviously it's a massive part of my life but I like to be
06:59I guess like a really well-rounded human being and that's when I'm happiest and performing at
07:03my best as well so that was that was kind of a really big thing about how I planned my year
07:08meaning that I could have a really big break post games and then just get back into
07:12a bit of training before we flew over here to Champions League. So yeah this is the
07:17last event for the year which is cool but yeah I really did plan everything around that games
07:23period. I worked out sensationally for you. Moving on to Tom Davidson from Cycling Weekly
07:30in Great Britain and there's a question for Matt and I think Matt probably knows what's
07:35coming here. How do you feel about making your debut in Great Britain colours Matt?
07:43Yeah super excited super excited especially keen for the for the rounds in London obviously
07:49Paris is going to be special just being the first one but London's really where it's going to feel
07:56feel quite amazing I think every time I race there like at Commies or
07:59previous rounds of Tri-Champions League I've always had the most home support in the crowd
08:04than any other competition in the world. So this year having the whole crowd behind me
08:11is going to feel super special and yeah just super looking forward to it. It's going to be a bit of a
08:17pinch myself moment how long that I've wanted this for and that it's actually happening so I've just
08:23got to be careful and make sure that I really soak it in because yeah it will only happen once
08:29racing for the first time in front of home crowd so yeah really looking forward to it.
08:34Well you already had a pretty special reception in the past there so I'm for one I'm looking
08:38forward to hearing that noise when you get onto the track in London. I think we'll stay with you
08:42Matt because we've got another question from Bunwa for you if I can find it just put it in the chat.
08:46What do you expect from those rivals from Australia and can you tell us
08:53something about the talent of Tate Ryan? Yeah I mean we know that Lee's really strong
09:01he showed that at the Games with his first big big appearance in the individual sprint
09:07and again I think backed that up quite well at Worlds. Tom seems to be a little bit off the mark
09:13recently so not really sure how he's prepped for this could have found a little bit more form
09:20possibly. Tate will be interesting I think he had a good run at Junior Worlds obviously that track's
09:26at a thousand meters of altitude so times and things like that aren't super relevant to what
09:33you see at more common tracks at sea level so it'd be interesting to see what he can do.
09:39It's been a few months since Junior Worlds so he might have made another step forward but
09:44I think for Tate it's going to just be a really big learning experience and I think
09:51it'll be good for him if he knows that coming in. I think that'll be the best thing for him is not
09:56expecting too much and just trying to learn as much as possible and kind of grab onto the
10:00opportunity with both hands and not expect too much of himself. Let's go to Dahari next because
10:07Paul back here from France. Is it something different for you?
10:16Definitely. It's already going to be the fourth season this year where I'm competing and
10:24in the beginning of the year in January we had the European Championships in Apeldoorn.
10:30It was an amazing atmosphere after that I worked together with the organization to bring the
10:36Track Champions League home and I'm really happy it worked out so I'm really looking forward to
10:41that race in front of the home crowd. It's going to be the first time for the Champions League and
10:48I like to show the Dutch people what track cycling can be and what we can do and I think it's going
10:54to be an amazing event. Well I can't see any more questions for the minute while we wait for any
11:00more questions I'm going to run through the schedule because it's a minute that it's a time
11:04I think that we we should tell you we've got round one coming up this weekend in Saint-Quentin-Yvelines
11:08in France just outside Paris then the two rounds that Harry was talking about there in Apeldoorn
11:14in Netherlands there'll be Friday and Saturday nights on weekend two the third and final weekend
11:19will be in London sort of become a bit of a tradition now the double header in East London
11:25at the Olympic Park to finish things off so five nights five rounds in total and when you're
11:30promoting it remember that the broadcast times are different for every night so please double
11:34check your schedules I think this weekend if I'm not mistaken is either 5 or 6 p.m.
11:39so double check that and that is the first round this Saturday evening um
11:47so Emilio from France this one is for Harry does Matt's move to Great Britain change anything for
11:55you except the colour of the jersey of course I think he's going to be a more fierce opponent now
12:03I'm gonna meet them also at the European Championships now so uh definitely I think
12:11I think it's a interesting move a smart move I think most of the track races
12:17are based in Europe also like the track champions league
12:20um yeah and I think it's interesting and I wonder how we will fit in the in the GB team sprint but I
12:27definitely think they will improve a lot in the coming years so yeah I think it's a good move
12:34and interesting and I think we will race a lot more together where in the actually in the past
12:41year we only meet each other at the at the Olympics for yeah for a good race so that's
12:46going to be interesting I should say and add to that as a fan that um it's going to be great to
12:51see that rivalry continue to develop and become more fierce as you say you're going to be taking
12:55on each other another time a year now in the European Championships as well so that's going
13:00to be fantastic for all of us to watch now Benoit again asks another question uh and this is I'm
13:06going to leave this out for all of you and open first to answer on mute and first to answer I
13:11think um how intense and specific is the format of the champions league and how close to your
13:16limits does it push you volunteers? Shall I answer first? Go for it. I think uh uh in the in the
13:26beginning uh the first season the track the champions league was pretty hard we also started
13:30with Kieran first sprint after but I think last year they improved it by always doing the sprint
13:35heats first and then afterwards the Kieran um it is a hard evening uh but it is doable
13:42um I think only the big difference is like if you made it uh to the sprint final there's only
13:48two riders riding the sprint final they have they have going to be the hardest evening because
13:54yeah really quickly after that they needed to perform in the Kieran again where all the riders
13:59are fresh and ready um but I think it's interesting and also with Apeldoorn with the double header as
14:03well uh yeah it is doable but you need to focus on your recovery.
14:11And I'm going to go to Emma on this next one and this is from from Germany from Raj Sport News
14:16and going back to the Olympic velodrome what are the feelings there how does it feel thinking back
14:21to moments good bad uh things that you'd like to sort out checks that haven't been set? Yeah I'm
14:29really excited to go back obviously it's going to be a bit different in terms of the rings aren't
14:33going to be on the track and track centre might feel a bit different and the crowd as well um
14:37hopefully it'd be a big crowd but um yeah I'm really excited to go back different style of
14:41racing obviously preparations have been completely different but the memories are still there and
14:46yeah it'll be nice we're taking the whole team sprint so Sophie and Katie come in as well so
14:50that'll be nice to go back there with them where we won and yeah it brings back a lot of memories
14:54I'm just excited to race there again. And one more for you um this comes from Paul and and it's about
15:00Matthew um what's he added to the team what's it like having him as a teammate this year?
15:05Yeah it's really good having him as a teammate obviously I've never trained with him before but
15:09he adds a lot to the team he's really hard working um he brings quite like a fun energy to the track
15:15which I love um and it's been really nice just getting to know him more and seeing more of him
15:20which is really special and yeah when the boys come back from their break I think it'll be really
15:24good to see how he is with the men's team sprint but he'll fit in great and yeah it's just been
15:29really good to have him as part of our team now. And Elise uh obviously it was such a special one
15:33for you going back to the Olympics that question that was asked from Germany a minute I think it's
15:37um it's one for you it's gonna how's it gonna feel going back onto those boards?
15:42Oh it's um it's pretty funny I just went down to the track before just have a little look around
15:47and I think it's um it feels like everything is a crazy dream I think like being back here
15:52so soon after the games um so that's really interesting and then racing on the track will
15:58just be a whole nother level of um yeah crazy um which is exciting so yeah I'm looking forward to
16:06this first round it would be awesome to crack into it. This is from Tom Davison for you Mark
16:12another and I saw this on Instagram actually yesterday you were busy looking at wheels and
16:16what have you and equipment at Hope HQ how was the visit? Yes so sick like the place is um
16:24is unreal it's so much bigger than I thought it was going to be like they say they make everything
16:28in-house and you kind of think you know what that means until you see what making everything
16:32in-house actually is like the amount of equipment and uh special machinery that they have there to
16:38punch out brake calipers or rotors or just literally anything it just blew my mind like
16:44the carbon department is actually just like a couple little rooms off to the side the main
16:48the main shebang there is the yeah the mountain bikes up and the cyclocross stuff um so yeah
16:54it just it just blew my mind it was so sick and it was so cool to to meet the people behind the
16:59project like I remember when the when the Hope video uh got dropped mid 2020 um I watched it
17:06about 20 times like it just blew my mind how cool that that frame was and and the wheels and all that
17:11sort of stuff so to be in those rooms in that video that I watched was just super surreal and
17:15just yeah a super cool experience. Fantastic now this is one to to all of you from Nick Christian
17:21who's in London by the way I see you put a second one I want to answer that one Nick
17:24the first the main question um given the rapid fire league racing format in the track champions
17:30league how important is it for sprinters to achieve performance consistency and sort of
17:36getting into a rhythm and a groove to get wins on the board?
17:45Go on you know you want to do somebody.
17:47I just missed the last part of that question but I think I know what you're asking um consistency
17:55across the league is um super important like I think when you're um working in such small margins
18:00and that's something that I um learned last year was you know every little piece of um of time on
18:06the track matters and so yeah I guess for us it's really about just pushing to the line and making
18:12sure every race is I guess raced to our absolute best. Fantastic and moving on this is for from
18:18Eastbourne um what's this like as a shop window for track cycling because we're you know in this
18:23sport we're constantly looking aren't we you know how can we sell our sport how can we get
18:28more eyes on it um any of you four like to comment on how you think this sells the sport?
18:34I think it's really exciting way to I guess showcase track cycling um track sprinting
18:39specifically a little bit biased but I think um yeah such an awesome and exciting adrenaline
18:44filled sport and so to be showcasing in a way that really um highlights that with you know the
18:49whole show around what we do um is perfect and I know that lots of people love watching that all
18:55over the world um in New Zealand for sure I know Europe's massive on it so um it's cool to just
19:00have a bit of a format where we can kind of showcase what we're all about and I think that
19:04really aligns with sort of like the show element of UCI Track Champions League. This is for Matthew
19:10for Paul again in France um he says it seems we have a lot of competition and contenders in good
19:15shape this year Jakov Lev, Nicholas Pauls, Bart Quintero etc um is the level this year going to be
19:21higher? Yeah I think so I mean I thought this the first year though that I raced it the second year
19:28of Champs League I remember looking at the start list and thinking oh this is going to be really
19:31tough and really hard and Harry and I found ourselves in the final every single time so um
19:36yeah I kind of learned from that first year to not obviously not underestimate people but also
19:41just to keep backing myself so but yeah you're right I think uh given the form that people were
19:46on at the World Championship those people are also here racing I think it's only really the
19:50Japanese team that that aren't showing other than that it's pretty much everyone all guns blazing
19:55and obviously like I said earlier Lee from Australia is uh stepping up now in individual
20:00ranks so it's another name to uh to contend with so yeah I think it's going to be really
20:04tough as it should be as it is every year I mean you don't want it to be easy um you want to learn
20:09as much as you possibly can for the races that really matter next year so uh yeah it'll be tough
20:16and I can see one more question out there from from Paul I'm going to throw this to Harry um
20:22a new keyring rule one more lap six laps
20:25does that change anything compared to the last few years of course in the Champions League
20:29uh yeah in the past few years was five laps um
20:34I I don't really know I think uh I like six laps what we're used to on World Championships
20:39on Olympics on every race uh two laps was possible but I think that the idea of of the
20:45three laps behind the journey is that it brings us to speed on an easy way and I think uh three
20:51laps are a bit better for that and I think it builds up the tension but also the yeah in the
20:58first few laps you think a lot about the tactics and I think giving that one extra lap uh gives
21:03some rest to the riders uh I think I think it's better with six but it doesn't gonna change a lot
21:10for the for the racing we've got the Kieran Queen as well but I'm gonna ask her something different
21:15here this is from Thomas in um France uh so for you Elise who's going to be the biggest threat in
21:20the Sprint League this year um the return perhaps of the past champion Mathilde Gros maybe one of
21:27those yeah I think like it's hard and I don't think that we can really pick one I think as some
21:33of the other girls and guys have said um you know we have such a strong field and we have no idea
21:40what's going to happen out there on the track and so I think the way that I always like to
21:44think about racing mentally is you know bringing my a-game and my best and um you know who knows
21:49what what that means in comparison to everyone else but if we can control what we can control
21:54personally then um we will see very good same question finally to you Emma who else are we
22:00looking at apart from you two stars at this year's Sprint League um yeah similarly to Elise but I
22:06think based off worlds like obviously the ducks are really strong um we have the whole NZ women's team
22:12which is quite fun uh we obviously have my GB teammates um it's quite a strong field to be fair
22:18obviously Mathilde's there as well um and I think it'll be interesting to see where everyone's at
22:23considering we've all had different journeys into it so I'm excited to see how we race obviously
22:30the first round is really important because then it seeds you on to the next one and I've been
22:34caught out sometimes in terms of like if you don't start very well it can be quite hard for you but
22:40I'm excited to get stuck in see where we're all at and yeah I think it'll be really close competition
22:46excellent well I'd like to thank all of the four athletes for attending I can't wait to see them
22:50on the track I hope you'll join us on the telly or in person if you come into Paris as well at
22:55the weekend thanks for joining us and we'll be back next week I guess with the leaders jersey
23:00and what have you so good luck everybody goodbye