The last-but-one event in this year’s Keirin World Series saw Ellesse Andrews and Harrie Lavreysen adding another overall win to their stellar records in Japanese domestic keirin; but that doesn’t tell the story of two fantastic races, in what has sometimes been a disappointingly predictable series.
In the women’s final, Andrews 4 began her charge with half a lap remaining, and a big gap to be closed to a breakaway rider.
But Hetty van de Wouw – the only woman to have beaten the Kiwi during the series – was on her wheel throughout, and made her inevitable move as they came out of the final corner.
Andrews was giving it everything, struggling to hold her line up the home straight with the Dutch woman gaining ground all the time. And at the line – who got it? Van de Wouw later admitted, she wasn’t sure herself.
The judges weren’t sure either: so they declared a rare dead heat – the first of van de Wouw’s career, and believed to be the first involving an international rider in Japanese keirin.
Gifu was Andrews’s final appearance in the Keirin World Series: she ends her time in Japan with only a single loss on her record. She wasn’t too disappointed by the dead heat: ‘I know that I gave everything to my race,’ she said afterwards, ‘so there was nothing more I could have done.’
In the men’s race, Harrie Lavreysen 3 took yet another win: but we have to acknowledge a great ride by Joe Truman 4.
Lavreysen made his move from the back of the line with a lap to go – and Truman struggled to stay with him. The Dutchman got caught up in traffic into the back straight, and was forced up the track. This gave Truman a chance to dive down towards the sprinters’ lane, undertaking two riders, and emerging right on Lavreysen’s wheel.
Into the final bend, and Lavreysen again moved up the track to overtake the two leading riders – generously leaving enough of a gap for Truman. And suddenly, the two international stars were next to each other, chasing the win.
Truman entered the home straight fractionally in front! – but there was enough track left for Lavreysen to pull ahead, and avenge his only loss in the series so far.
‘I wanted to do a very fast final lap, but the other riders made it really hard to get to the front. Yamaguchi sent me right up the track, I saw Joe was going under, I took over, we took a different route – but yeah, we saw each other at the finish line again.’
In the qualifying rounds earlier in the week, Lavreysen had also beaten the Gifu track record for the closing 200m: in sweltering conditions, he posted a time of 10.5, breaking a record which had stood for more than 20 years.
Lavreysen goes on to Kawasaki for the final event of the Keirin World Series, starting on Sunday. He faces competition from former UCI world champion Kento Yamasaki, currently ranked inside the top 30. In the women’s event, Mathilde Gros will join van de Wouw to close the Series.
