Under the bright lights in the Spanish city of Palma, the second season of the UCI Track Champions League got underway on Saturday.
The format sees racing split between Endurance and Sprint categories. There are two events in each: the Elimination and Scratch for the former, the Sprint and Keirin for the latter. Each round in the five-strong series features the same race programme.
Rankings are based on points scored rather than times: a race winner gets 20 points, with 17 on offer for second and 15 for third, down to a point for fifteenth.
In the 5km Scratch race, Mark Stewart escaped with home favourite Sebastián Mora and gained a lap on the rest of the field, catching the bunch as he crossed the line.
The 27-year-old finished third in the Elimination race to ensure he'd leave Mallorca in the lead of the Endurance category, as debutant Mathias Guillemette of Canada saw off last year's overall Endurance winner Gavin Hoover for victory.
"When it does go your way, it's lovely and it feels good. But I just like racing hard," Stewart told Eurosport/GCN afterwards.
"I spent the first few years of my career putting pressure on myself. Things had to mean things and it became part of who you were. You realise it's just riding a bike, I'm going to go and have some fun."
His compatriot Katie Archibald used her power to hold off faster-finishing rivals in the women's Scratch race, finishing ahead of Tania Calvo (Spain) and Jennifer Valente (USA).
However, her hopes of category leadership were scuppered when she went out first in the Elimination race. Crossing the line second to Anita Stenberg of Norway meant Valente ended the night in front overall.
"This was big," the American said afterwards. "I'm happy that some of the [Track World Championships] form is still there." Asked how confident she was about keeping the leader's jersey, the reigning World and Olympic Omnium champion replied: "I think it's all about consistency, it's really early in the series to make any predictions."
In the Sprint category, world champion Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands won the Keirin, ahead of rivals Stefan Bötticher (Germany) and Australian Matthew Richardson.
However, Richardson turned the tables to get the better of Laveyresen in the Sprint. "I tried something different I hadn't tried earlier in the year and it paid off," Richardson said.
Meanwhile, French world champion Mathilde Gros outpaced Hetty van de Wouw to win the women's Sprint, while Martha Bayona (Colombia) led from the front to claim the Keirin ahead of Canada's Kelsey Mitchell.
Stewart, Valente, Lavreysen and Dutch sprinter Shanne Braspennincx will wear the UCI Track Champions League celeste leader's jerseys at round two in Berlin on November 19.
