# A full year since the last DerbyWheel news update

*By Simon | April 13, 2025*

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![waiting](https://globalkeirin.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/waiting.jpg)

## 󠀁[A full year since the last DerbyWheel news update](https://globalkeirin.com/2025/04/a-full-year-since-the-last-derbywheel-news-update/)󠁿

13 April 2025

It gives _Global Keirin_ no pleasure whatsoever to note that today marks exactly
**one year** since the last ‘[news](https://www.derbywheel.com/blog)‘ article
was posted on the DerbyWheel website.

Regular readers will know we
[watch closely](https://globalkeirin.com/2024/09/counting-the-days-since-the-last-derbywheel-news-update/)
for any signs of life.

CEO James Pope posted a video message
[on the homepage last June](https://globalkeirin.com/2024/06/confirmed-no-derbywheel-test-event-until-after-olympics/)
, confirming that there would be no test event until after the Paris Olympics;
and he has mentioned DerbyWheel
[recently](https://globalkeirin.com/2025/03/work-continues-on-derbywheel-says-ceo/)
on his LinkedIn feed.

The address of DerbyWheel’s Seoul office was changed a few months ago, and we
noted a domain name had recently been renewed.

But _Global Keirin_ understands that communications to the hundreds of riders
signed up to DerbyWheel have practically dried up.

![Screenshot](https://globalkeirin.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/04/calendar.jpg)

_DerbyWheel Calendar page, 13 April 2025_

The DerbyWheel website continues to insist that ‘regular’ racing will begin
‘from the 1st half of 2025’ – but we are already halfway through that period,
with no hint of a test event.

**A dispassionate outsider would surely conclude that an initiative which has had no news to report in 12 months is not a going concern.**

Even if wheels were to suddenly start turning, the validity of DerbyWheel’s
rider assessments or its proposed equipment specification are a year out of
date, and surely open to question.

Any momentum from last summer’s Olympics, followed by a world championships
which saw Japanese riders win both keirin titles, is gone.

![UCI 2024 Track World Championships Ballerup](https://globalkeirin.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/SW6_0527.jpg)

_Yamasaki victorious at the 2024 World Championships (Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com)_

So what hope is there for DerbyWheel’s vision of a global pro keirin
competition?

Well, Japanese keirin seems to be surging, with
[betting turnover reported to have doubled](https://globalkeirin.com/2025/04/japanese-keirin-betting-doubles-in-five-years/)
in the last five years; and it will shortly begin an
[experiment](https://globalkeirin.com/2025/01/japanese-keirin-to-trial-international-style-racing/)
running races under ‘international’ rules.

The
[UCI’s decision to cancel the Track Champions League](https://globalkeirin.com/2025/03/uci-terminates-track-champions-league/)
was disappointing, of course; but it leaves the playing field open for a
disruptor like DerbyWheel.

The threat of exclusion from UCI competition still remains, in theory at least:
but with TCL’s demise, and the failure to deliver a full Track Nations Cup
schedule, riders might justifiably ask: what competitions are there to be
excluded from?

The feeling amongst those with inside knowledge is that _something_ will
probably happen, although probably not on the scale originally proposed.

One could argue that the organisation of a test event is a test in itself: and
DerbyWheel in its current form, with its current plan, simply has not passed
that test.

It must now be time to look at the components which have been successfully
gathered; and consider a different way to make use of them.

**Categories:** Original
**Tags:** dwnews, testevent