What's going on: Italian track cyclists emerge triumphant from the Madison relay maelstrom
Italian track cyclists Chiara Consonni and Vittoria Guazzini won a gruelling victory in the women's Madison relay at the National Velodrome west of Paris Friday night, stealing a lap late in the race and leaving the reigning British champions in second place. It was only the second time the event has been held at the Olympics – and a tough act to follow in more ways than one.
There are no brakes on track cyclists’ bikes – the only way to stop is to keep going forward and hope the laws of physics lose interest. Their feet lashed to their pedals, riders have to be guided onto the track by their coaches’ patient hands, helpless until the race begins. Then a gun goes off, and they’re gone.
The rules of the Madison track cycling relay are not, at the risk of understatement, immediately obvious to first-time viewers. The field is crowded: more than two dozen cyclists take to the track in teams of two, winding round and round the course seemingly at random. In the men's event, this continues for some 200-odd laps. Today, with the women’s teams lining up on the oval-shaped track of the National Velodrome west of Paris, the race will last just 120 – though that's still 30km of track to cover.
Only one rider from each pair is considered to be racing at a time, although neither stops moving throughout the race. Instead, one drops back and drifts around the track in what passes for a break in Olympic-level track cycling. The other pedals furiously, weaving in and out of the other teams’ cyclists as they strive to steal a lap on their adversaries.
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