LONDON – Heartbeats and watts were unleashed by both the athletes on the track and the spectators in the stands. La UCI Track Champions League It's a whirlwind of emotions and adrenaline that constantly entertains youAnd it couldn't be otherwise in an event organized by Warner Bros. Discovery.
Its evenings always offer high-quality cycling and choreography designed specifically for spectators. The final two races, held at the Lee Valley Olympic Velodrome in London, determined the final rankings. The Dutch Harry Lavreysen and New Zealander Ellesse Andrews won the sprint disciplines, while Canadian Dylan Bibic and Scotswoman Katie Archibald won the endurance disciplines. (UciTCL photo above). However, we wanted to delve deeper into the behind-the-scenes with the thirty-two-year-old Frenchman. Florian Pavia, Series Director of the UCI Track Champions LeagueA friendly and moderate person, born in Morocco, with roots in Pantelleria (so much so that his father still speaks Italian), who worked for ASO (the Tour de France organizer) before joining the WBD group. Let's hear what he had to say.
When it was launched in 2021, it was said that the Champions League had to seduce viewers. Has this challenge been met for you today?
I think so. We wanted the format for this and will organize it until 2028. We wanted to make track cycling accessible to everyone. Not just for track enthusiasts, but also for a much broader audience, far removed from cycling. The priority remains the television product, however. The right balance must always be found between the experience in the velodrome and the one perceived at homeWe always work on this after each event, doing lots of tests.
In this search for balance, are you looking more at the home user?
Certainly, ours remains a product that must privilege the viewer. We have five thousand people in the velodrome, which is still a lot for an event like this, but at home we have more than one hundred thousand.The numbers have steadily grown from the first edition to today. In reality, they're small increases because we'd already started off very well. We are on the order of 10 percent growth every year on television.
And in the velodromes?
There, however, we have much higher percentages. In Paris in 2022 we had around 2.500 people, this year over 4.000. And without having the big names of the French track.This means that the people who came to watch and enjoy our show were there. A mix of competitions and general participation, with light shows and music. It's three hours of racing that fly by quickly.. And the audience remains passionate from beginning to end.
How do you choose the test locations?
The choice of velodromes over the years has never been a coincidence. Partly because of the markets of those countries and partly because of the tradition they have on the track.Mallorca, for example, is also an excellent destination for its good climate. We'd like to go to Apeldoorn, Holland. We're working on it as early as 2024.It must be said that we then have our own requirements to meet.
What are they?
Velodromes must have a ceiling height of at least nine metres to accommodate cable cam installation.Then we need all the space we need for the equipment. We have a control truck that controls eighteen cameras pointed at the track and stands. Finally, we also have a compound inside the velodrome that takes care of all the lights and choreographic effects with great coordinationWe can't put on a show like this just anywhere.
What has changed compared to the first edition?
From 2021 to today we have inevitably had to make adjustments. For example, we changed the order of the races this year so that they were more coherent and logical for television.We realized we couldn't present the ranking leaders after about 45 minutes of racing. It was a matter of television, but the velodrome crowd didn't understand. So we decided to do it immediately and broadcast it later during a short break.
Could there be any news for the next UCI Track Champions League?
For future editions we are considering adding specialties. The speed part works very wellIt's in line with our idea of an event. The endurance portion, on the other hand, is a little more challenging. These riders run for about ten minutes. Half of them tell you it's perfect, the other half doesn't because they can't express themselves to the fullest. If we want to keep the program three hours long, we have no alternative. However, for the endurance athletes we have organised a points race in the afternoon (which awards some points in the UCI ranking, ed.) so they can use it as a warm-up race.
Do you think it can steal the show and the athletes from the Six Days?
I don't think so. The Champions League is a totally different product from the Be Giorni. Those are races for an audience that follows the track constantly, almost niche.For example, their format is not very suitable for television.
Will there be a chance to see some big names in the Olympic year?
Usually, qualification for the Champions League happens through the World Cup, but next year that won't be possible because the Olympics will come first. So after Paris 2024 we will see the results and distribute our 17 wild cardsRegardless of everything, looking at your home, we would love to have riders like Viviani o Ganna. We will make an attempt to bring them to us.
