World Championships 2021
 

Looks like Covid is restricting many countries from attending. No riders from Australia and New Zealand that can see.
USA only sent a few riders - USA Cycling probably spent their money on the Olympics this year.
Plenty of exciting races.

Update: There were NZ riders competing Friday.
Update: Australia competed in the Women's Madison Saturday.

Checked the individual persuit final won by Lambie and didn't get the reason for his "wide", "open" path on straights, even going "up" when leaving turns.. I can get the reason to slightly open the trajectory entering turns, but going wide all the time.. it seemed weird to me.
The video is available at UCI YouTube as "day 3", I believe.

Looks like the fad of comically huge chainrings may be passe now? I didn't see any extra-large pizza looking rings out there.

I would imagine that it's to "straighten-out" the track and make it more round instead of cigar-shaped. There are a lot of g-forces when you slam into turns 1 and 3. That turns into friction on the tires and binding-up of the legs. So, I guess the smoothness is worth more than the extra distance traveled. I noticed people doing this as far back as 10 years ago.

On a related note, this effect can be dramatic. I recall one of the top German sprinters rolling a tire as he dove into turn 1 of a flying 200M several years ago. I've seen horizontal striations on my tires after high-speed runs on an outdoor cement track with tight turns.

I haven’t seen anything outside of Insta posts but in those some big rings are still present. I saw someone, I think Theo Bos post that Hoog was on 53/11 for the kilo. With smaller cogs being used then even though front rings may be smaller, no doubt the gears are still big, especially for the Dutch

Checked Hoogland Kilo in slow motion and counted 27 pedal strokes each lap = 9,26m = ~ 53/12.

No sponges at all - I think it's a nice idea.
Rules changed?

Dude, 53 is positively tiny by recent standards! I mean, even I have a 53. These days you're not really rockin until you're over 60. Too rich for my blood. Ever priced a 60t Zen?

And I think the thinking was (outside of just big looks tough) that the bigger cog (14-15t+) caused a less acute angle on the chain and friction, physics, something-something. Guess Hoogland just proved that was ********.

The Brits turned things on their heads the last few Olympics with their Olympic peak play. The Dutchies kind of righted the ship showing that you can be fast all the damn time, The Dutch are really showing up a whole lot of long held beliefs in what they are doing. They have something seriously great happening with both their talent pool and their training regime. They were fast on old early 2000's designed bikes, they are fast without a lot of the super aero bits and pieces, they are fast on gears that are (were) outrageous, they are consistently fast seeming bucking the ups and downs of traditional training peaks and troughs. They buck conventional thinking and well, fast is fast and the Dutch are FAST and consistently so. But the beauty about it is that they're not just out there in a league of their own. Almost everyone else is still nipping at their heels and it makes for a great spectacle IMO

One word on the Dutch: BMX.

Got it. So to do a 30s 500m I need to use a 53x12 (119").

Holy effing s**t. So freaking fast. I used a 56x14 (108") and could barely get that thing turning. He was pedaling his gear like it was a 42x21.

It looks like he's pulling up hard at the start, which is something that I thought wasn't done.

Second lap was bellow 14sec ~120 rpm, third ~110 rpm, last ~100 rpm - a typical "sprinters kilo", ie, "dying" at the end.

120 rpm is 43-44 mph. wow. I hit 37 mph. Same rpm basically (119 rpm) but that's a different world. Different universe.

A lot of pursuiters ride this line. I've heard it called "Lucy Lines" after the person who pioneered it, but I forget her name...

Basically, if you're on a straight, on the black line, looking forward at the lane, it rises up in the turns as the banking increases. If you aim to hit the black line all the way around, that's great, but you're still likely to flick up in the turns. That robs you of momentum (even if you get it back) and rhythm and control.

Drifting out to red on the straights lets you ride the waterline of the track - the line of equal height - which lets you sort of dive into the turns without getting hit by the banking. It's a very smooth and fast line and you really feel the acceleration into the turns from the wider arc instead of that slight fight when you hit the steeper banking.

You can try something similar just on your warmup - on 250s, my warmup line is out to the rail on the straights and then over to the stayer's line in the turns. That's a similar waterline (and a real joy to ride on well-designed tracks).

Would this, in theory, be applicable to the flying 200m? You really are only dealing with two straights and one turn you are ''diving" into, but in game determined by hundredths of a second...it might be worth exploring.

At my local track the difference in height of the black line is 8.75cm or 17.5cm per lap (equates to 2.8m for a 4K race).

that's riding the black line all the way around? huh. that's less than i would have figured. at 55kph those 2.8m are only .2 seconds.

I'm reading that as 2.8m "elevation gain" rather than a bike length distance.

Gaining elevation on the track increases distance traveled.