Don’t you think the Melbourne track judges were a bit overzealous with the sprints? They had a big say in who won the men’s and women’s titles when they relegated Jason Kenny, Anna Meares and Simone Kupreckaite.
The major reason for the relegations in Melbourne was because riders moved out of the sprinters’ line.
But I’d argue that some of the manoeuvres had no impact on the outcome of the races. Nor did they put the other sprinters in danger.
The idea of the sprinters’ line is that once a track sprint starts it effectively becomes a lane, like those on an athletics track.
When the lead racer drops inside the sprinter’s line he or she can’t come out of it.
The reason they do come out of it is to try and make anyone overtaking them on the outside ride further up the track.
In sprinter’s parlance the other rider has to ‘go the long way round’.
The rule ensures fair play and safety. If there was no rule the lead rider could ride where he or she wanted and could even squeeze their opponent into the track wall.
Plus, if the leader moved up violently the over-taker might get knocked off.
It’s a good rule. A necessary rule, in fact. But was it applied in the spirit it was intended in Melbourne?
I’m not sure. It was certainly a far cry from the days of professional sprinters.
The track sprint has been part of the modern Olympics since the early games. But cycling was split into amateur and professionals then, and the pros weren’t allowed into the Olympics until 1996.
Amateur sprinting operated closer to the Olympic ideal, although it was still a lot rougher than it is today.
Pro sprinting sometimes looked like wrestling on wheels.
It was a hard sport, practised by hard men who treated the rule book more as guide.
The judges helped create the Wild West feel that the sport had. They only stepped in if the other rider protested, or was too badly injured to do it himself.
The heyday of pro sprinting was between 1930 and the end of the 1950s.
In those days pro sprint matches between the likes of Britain’s Reg Harris, Arie Van Vliet of Holland and Aussie Sid Patterson could pack out a stadium.
The 60s saw this golden era of cycling draw to a close, but it was still an exciting branch of cycling, full of colourful characters.
One of them was from New South Wales. Ron Baensch is a lovely, friendly bloke off the track, but as mean and tough a mother as ever raced on it.
Baensch was fourth in the 1960 Rome Olympics and won a bronze medal in the 1964 amateur worlds.
But those were the days when amateur really did mean amateur, as in they didn’t get paid.
If you wanted to make cycling your career you went pro.
Baensch did just that, and he was second in the 1964 world pro sprint championships, and won bronze medals in 1965 and 1966.
I met Baensch years ago when he had returned to Europe to visit the spot where his six-day racing partner Tom Simpson had died on Mont Ventoux during the 1967 Tour de France.
The 60s were a big source of income for pro sprinters then and he and Simpson were one of the best teams on the circuit.
We talked long into the night about lots of things, but one of the topics involved the tactics of a 60s match sprint.
“No one overtook on the inside. If you did, the front rider would just chop you down and you either rode off the track or crashed,” he told me.
“This was so much part of what we did that we called the inside line dead man’s alley,” he continued.
“The judges didn’t get involved, it was like your own fault if you went down that way and got knocked off.”
If passing on the inside was an unwritten no-no, the sprinter’s line was a fairly loose concept too.
“Riders went in and out all the time. It was only if it was dangerous that the judges got involved; if someone threw what we called a switch or hook, which is a really deliberate move up the track,” Baensch told me.
“Even then the judges didn’t always do anything; it got switched like that in the 1970 worlds trying to come past an Italian, but the judges didn’t do anything.”
And did he do the same?
“Yeah, of course. The Italians used to try and rough me up, ride me all over the track in the hope I’d retaliate, which I often did, and then they’d protest to try and get me disqualified.”
Another rough tactic was the chop, which is where one sprinter starts a sprint from above the other and rides straight across their path, causing them to slow suddenly to avoid contact.
It was standard practice, but in the 1964 pro worlds the Italian legend Antonio Maspes did it so blatantly that even Baensch protested.
Maspes’ victory was upheld by the judges, but the Paris crowd were still booing when Maspes received his gold medal and Baensch the silver.
It was a different world, and not one I advocate we return to.
But if sprinters continue to get the level of protection they had from the judges in Melbourne we are in danger of losing some of what the track sprint is about.
If the track craft and nuances are taken out of sprinting, you may as well use the 200-metre qualifying times to determine a sprint champion.
You would find the fastest man or women over the distance, but it doesn’t mean they would be the best sprinter in the competition.
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