2023 UEC Track Elite European Championships preview: Full schedule and stars to watch

The track cycling Olympic qualification cycle for Paris 2024 is upon us.

This week, new European champions will be anointed in Grenchen, Switzerland, at the 2023 UEC Track Elite European Championships (8–12 February) – and at the same time, points will be awarded in the UCI Track Olympic Ranking.

Around 300 of the continent's best track cyclists will gather at the Velodrome Suisse in Grenchen, Switzerland, to compete in 22 events across five days of action.

The cycling powerhouses of France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Netherlands are all likely to push for medals as usual – read on for a preview of athletes to watch.

• How to qualify for track cycling at Paris 2024

Athletes to watch at the 2023 track cycling European championships

Women

Great Britain will be looking to return to the top step of the women's podium in 2023 after their sending a younger squad to the 2022 Championships in Munich and walking away with just two silver medals last August.

New mothers Elinor Barker and Katy Marchant return to the British squad, while 17-time European gold medallist (and double Olympic champion) Katie Archibald is also back to try to regain the scratch, omnium, and Madison titles she won in 2021.

• Elinor Barker learning to navigate cycling as a new mother ahead of Commonwealth Games
• Elinor Barker: Team GB cyclist reveals she won Tokyo silver medal while pregnant

Belgium's Lotte Kopecky, the road race world silver medallist and current track world champion in the Madison and elimination race, is the defending champ in scratch and elimination, and will also be one to watch.

Italy have also selected Elisa Balsamo for her first European Championships since 2020, with the four-time European champion spearheading the team.

In the sprints, look for Germany to continue their recent stranglehold on European competition, with Lea Sophie Friedrich the two-time reigning continental title-holder in keirin.

France, meanwhile, will look to Mathilde Gros, the 2022 Track Cycling Female Rider of the Year award winner.

And the Netherlands – sprint and team sprint champions in 2021 with Olympic keirin champ Shanne Braspennincx leading the squad – should not be counted out either.

Men

All eyes will be on Filippo Ganna once more. The Italian last competed on the track at the European level in 2019, having chosen to focus on the World Championships and Olympic Games as well as his road exploits since then.

Ganna is renowned as a brilliant pursuitist, and also holds the UCI Hour Record set in the same velodrome, and with him in the squad Italy figure to be favourites in the team pursuit event in which they are also Olympic champions and world record holders.

His teammate Elia Viviani – the 2016 Olympic champion in omnium – is also heavily fancied to win the elimination race, being the two-time reigning world champion in the event.

Great Britain's hopes in the men's endurance events took a hit as Ethan Hayter was forced to withdraw from the team after fracturing his collarbone riding for INEOS Grenadiers in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race event. Instead, their charge will be led by Jack Carlin in the sprints.

France will look to Sébastien Vigier to deny Carlin. Vigier is the defending champion in both the individual sprint and and the keirin, albeit in the absence of Dutchmen **Harrie Lavreysen **and Jeffrey Hoogland, who both only rode the team sprint in 2022.

Lavreysen and Hoogland finished one-two in the individual sprint at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, and will be favoured for medals if they choose to ride the individual events again in Grenchen as they did in 2021.

Venue for the 2023 European Championships in track cycling: Grenchen velodrome

The Velodrome Suisse in Grenchen previously hosted the 2021 European Championships as a last-minute stand in for original hosts Minsk, as well as in 2015.

Home to the Swiss team's training centre, the venue has seen multiple UCI Hour Records set, including the current world records for both men and women – 56.792km by Italy's Ganna and Dutchwoman Ellen van Dijk's 49.254km respectively.

The track is a UCI standard 250m in length, with a 46 per cent banking on the curves.

2023 UEC Track Elite European Championships: Schedule and how to watch track cycling action from Grenchen

Only the evening (finals) sessions on each day are currently set to be broadcast.

Eurosport will have pan-European broadcast and streaming rights to the 2023 Track European Championships.

Within Europe, broadcast and/or streaming coverage will also be available on VRT and RTBF in Belgium, Rai in Italy, nos.nl in Netherlands, and Play SRF in Switzerland.

The schedule below is subject to change.

Wednesday 8 February

12:00–16:12:

• W team sprint qualifications
• M team sprint qualifications
• W team pursuit qualifications
• M team pursuit qualifications
• W scratch race qualifications if needed
• M elimination race qualifications if needed

18:00–20:00:

• W team sprint round 1
• M team sprint round 1
• W scratch race final
• M elimination race final
• W team sprint finals
• M team sprint finals

Thursday 9 February

12:00–15:57:

• W sprint 200m time trial qualifications
• M time trial 1km qualifying
• W sprint round of 32
• W team pursuit round 1
• M team pursuit round 1
• W sprint round of 16
• M points race qualifications if needed
• W elimination race qualifications if needed

18:00–21:29:

• W sprint quarter-finals race 1
• M points race final
• W sprint quarter-finals race 2
• W elimination race final
• M time trial 1km final
• W sprint quarter-finals race 3 if needed
• W team pursuit finals
• M team pursuit finals

Friday 10 February

12:00–16:21:

• W omnium qualifications if needed
• M sprint 200m time trial qualifications
• W omnium - scratch race
• M sprint round of 32
• M individual pursuit qualifications
• M sprint round of 16
• W omnium - tempo race
• M scratch race qualifications if needed

18:00–21:14:

• W sprint semi-finals race 1
• M sprint quarter-finals race 1
• W omnium - elimination race
• W sprint semi-finals race 2
• M sprint quarter-finals race 2
• M scratch race final
• W sprint semi-finals race 3 if needed
• M sprint quarter-finals race 3 if needed
• M individual pursuit finals
• W sprint finals race 1
• W omnium final - points race
• W sprint finals race 2
• W sprint finals race 3 if needed

Saturday 11 February

12:00–15:11:

• M omnium qualifications if needed
• W time trial 500m qualifying
• M omnium - scratch race
• W individual pursuit qualifying
• M omnium - tempo race
• W points race qualifications if needed

18:00–21:22:

• M sprint semi-finals race 1
• M omnium - elimination race
• M sprint semi-finals race 2
• W time trial 500m final
• M sprint semi-finals race 3 if needed
• W individual pursuit finals
• M omnium final - points race
• M sprint finals race 1
• M sprint finals race 2
• W points race final
• M sprint finals race 3 if needed

Sunday 12 February

11:00–13:52:

• W Madison qualifications if needed
• M Madison qualifications if needed
• W keirin round 1
• M keirin round 1
• W keirin round 1 repechage
• M keirin round 1 repechage

15:30–18:33:

• W keirin semi-finals
• M keirin semi-finals
• W Madison final
• W keirin 7–12 placement final
• W keirin final
• M keirin 7–12 placement final
• M keirin final
• M Madison final