Harrie Lavreysen flirts with danger in qualifying, then takes down Richardson to claim yet another world title

Lavreysen and Hoogland had already made a good start to the World Championships on day 1, winning the world title in the Team Sprint together with Roy van den Berg. Was Lavreysen feeling a little tired on day 2? In Santiago, Chile, the multiple world, Olympic, and European champion got off to a slow start. He was forced into the repechage in the Keirin.

In the final, however, his legs were back in top form. Lavreysen once again had perfect timing in the final five and ultimately won by a bike length. Twenty-five-year-old Leifg Hoffman from Australia came second, Hoogland third. “I am extremely proud and very happy with bronze,” the latter told NOS. “I had a plan and was in the final to win. It felt good, but this was the maximum I could achieve.”

Lavreysen was understandably delighted with his performance, talking to Dutch television, even though he narrowly escaped elimination in the preliminaries. He still reached the quarterfinals after a repechage. “I feel excellent and am very happy with it. However, it was a tough day because I lost the qualifying race.”

“I tried something in that race by starting from the back a little later. I was drawn to the back and wanted to get to know the track. Unfortunately, that didn't work out,” said Lavreysen. “After that, I was able to regroup, and in the quarterfinals, I was even able to ride in such a way that Matthew Richardson (Lavreysen's big rival, ed.) was eliminated. Tactically, that was very nice.”

According to Lavreysen, the final was “the perfect execution.” And so there was gold again. “You don't just win the Keirin title, and I didn't win it in the last two World Championships. For this tournament, I wanted to go for four world titles, but I waited to say that until I had won the Keirin. Now that's done, four titles is a nice goal, and that's what we're going for.”