Lavreysen takes men's sprint jersey at UCI Track Champions League

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Harrie Lavreysen - the world and Olympic sprint champion - proved to be the dominant force in the men's sprint events in the first round of the UCI Track Champions League, taking the lead in the first round by winning the individual sprint and taking a close second to Germany's Stefan Botticher in the keirin.

In the sprint, Lavreysen utterly smashed the final against the young Russian Mikhail Iakovlev who surprised Lavreysen's compatriot Jeffrey Hoogland in the semifinal to advance into the final.

But when it came to the two-up sprint, Iakovlev had no answer to the acceleration of the Dutchman and let go of his wheel with half a lap still to race.

"It was fun racing with three riders, it was hard and tactical. I liked it and felt really strong.

"He's still young and he's coming there. I thought let's build a lot of speed and surprise him, and he wasn't ready for my speed. But it was a good final."

Sprint

Mateusz Rudyk (Poland), Mikhail Iakovlev (Russia), Nicholas Paul (Trinidad & Tobago), Stefan Botticher (Germany) and pre-race favourites Jeffrey Hoogland and Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) won the opening heat of the men's sprint. The races took the unique format of three riders per heat with only the winners advancing to the semi-finals. As a result, the racing lacked the usual tactical games of the individual sprint and favoured early attackers.

Paul said the format "changed a lot tactically because it's not only one rider, you have to be aware of two riders so it was very different".

The sprint semifinal pitted Paul and Rudyk against Lavreysen, while Iakovlev and Botticher had to contend with Hoogland.

Rudyk opened up the effort first in heat 1, but Paul surged ahead of the bell. The acceleration only served to inspire Lavreysen to push through on the inside, forcing Paul high up on the banking. With a superior turn of speed and the shorter line, Lavreysen blasted away to take the semifinal win over Paul to advance to the final.

In the second heat, Botticher took the front early but it was Iakovlev who opened up the sprint with more than a lap and a half to go. With Botticher in the sprint lane and the Russian holding tight to the inside, Hoogland was forced to take the long way around and came up short - Iakovlev advanced to the final and the Dutchman was denied.

Keirin

On the first heat of the men's Keirin, Stefan Botticher (Germany) left nothing to chance and went early, with world champion Lavreysen having to scramble through to make the final by edging out Vasiliujs Lendel (Lithuania).

Before heat 2, Kento Yamasaki was dropped by his holder before the line-up and used the adrenaline boost to fuel a vicious turn of speed on the final lap to hold off Jeffrey Hoogland (Netherlands) to advance.

The third heat went off a little more smoothly, with Nicholas Paul putting on a tactical masterclass to power to victory over Hugo barrett (Canada).

In the final, Botticher came to the front early to challenge Hoogland as Lavreysen waited too long.

The German held off his Dutch rivals to take a searing victory.