Global Keirin understands that the DerbyWheel test event, scheduled to take place at the UK’s Newport velodrome later this month, may not be going ahead as planned. Black Line, the UK-based coaching group led by British elite sprint champion Pete Mitchell, posted on Facebook on the evening of April 10th that ‘due to an event…

Keirin racing in Japan and Korea is generally synonymous with narrow-tubed, steel-framed bicycles which, in the rest of the world, would be considered vintage museum pieces. With the reintroduction of Girls Keirin in 2012, Japanese women were permitted to ride on modern carbon fibre frames. DerbyWheel will continue that trend towards more modern machinery. DerbyWheel…

One of the many challenges facing an organisation seeking to launch a whole new sporting competition to a global audience, is choosing a suitable name. It needs to be unclaimed. It needs to be memorable. It needs to work, and be easy to say, in multiple languages. The word Derby first became associated with races…

Much of the excitement around DerbyWheel has centred around money, and specifically the opportunity for track sprinters to make a good – potentially, very good – living from their sport. At present, track sprinting (outside Korea and Japan) is dominated by a small number of national elite development programmes. There is no career path for…

Keirin in Japan and Korea is built on gambling. It is revenue derived from betting which pays the riders prize money, supports the velodromes, and feeds back into the community through charities and local government. Spectator riots and organised crime involvement may be in the distant past. But riders are constantly reminded that the sport…