Make track champs a mass event again
Last week was the National Track Championships, including the 4km pursuit and kilo events. I highlight these specifically as, over the last couple of years, British Cycling brought in qualifying criteria to compete. The fairly arbitrary times roughly qualify about eight people in each event, while others can try and qualify the night before the Championship. However, qualifying 14-15 hours before the actual Nationals kicks off is obviously somewhat sub-optimal for performance.
At the point of bringing in the regulation, the National Champs seemed to be booming in these two events, with almost 60 riders riding the men’s kilo in 2018. So, as the timed events seemed to be growing, why not keep this going or facilitate a way for more to compete? But British Cycling felt these timed events were apparently not as spectator-friendly. As much as I disagree, I understand their overall reasoning – they wanted more of a World Cup vibe, with more bunch racing. Add in para events (a positive) and the timed events needed to be cut down to fit in the busy three-day schedule.
There’s a large disparity in how sports culturally consider their National Championships. Anyone can run in the National Cross-country Championships; with hundreds of competitors, you’re likely a pretty snappy runner if you’re coming in the top 500. Whereas I can’t imagine anyone can just rock up and enter the British National Tennis Championships.
Personally, I would just extend the champs by a day and give everyone a chance to throw their name in the hat. This would have the added benefit of creating a less stressful schedule for athletes doing multiple events. You can still keep the finals on Friday night. It just requires a bit more funding from the governing body. Sadly, I predict with the current management, we have more chance of a cohesive national road series, or there being a cold day in hell, before that happens.
Jacob Tipper is a former elite cyclist and now professional coach