Motor-paced stayer racing will return to the UCI Track World Championships in Paris in 2027, ending a 33-year absence from the programme and creating an unusual potential route to a rainbow jersey for British stayer-racing specialists.
The discipline was last contested at the Track World Championships in Palermo in 1994. Its reinstatement emerged at the end of a wider UCI release and, according to Cycling Weekly, surprised riders and organisers involved in motor-paced racing.
Paul Curran, a four-time British stayer champion who rode in the 1994 Worlds, said the news had arrived without warning and that he had not heard rumours of the event returning. Graham Bristow, a UK race organiser, also said he initially thought the announcement was not genuine after hearing for decades that the discipline was finished.
The move restores a format which remains established in parts of mainland Europe, particularly Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and France, but requires specialist equipment and is not widely practised.
A specialised form of motor-paced racing
Stayer racing involves six riders drafting behind specially adapted motorbikes. Cycling Weekly reported that speeds can reach 100kph, while former British derny champion Matt Gittings said he had reached 111kph on a 400m outdoor German track.
The event differs substantially from derny racing in the machinery used. Bristow described stayer racing as a distinct discipline in which the pacer stands to make a larger aerodynamic shelter and rides a larger motorbike fitted with a rear roller. The stayer’s bicycle is adapted too, with a 24-inch front wheel and reversed fork blades. By contrast, the report said derny racing is contested on standard bunch bikes.
Those distinctions matter because they place stayer racing beyond a simple change to the World Championships timetable. The specialist equipment required means stayer racing is not widely practised.
The need for dedicated machinery also frames the practical challenge facing riders who may wish to pursue the new title. The report identified access to adapted bicycles as a question around the event, while the UCI had not released qualification information when Cycling Weekly published its account. The programme announcement therefore establishes the championship event, but leaves the route into the field unresolved.
Gittings said average speeds on larger outdoor tracks were normally about 75kph, but he expected speeds nearer 65-70kph on the smaller indoor track used for the Worlds. He argued that stayer racing offered a more striking spectacle than derny racing because it is bigger, noisier and faster, and noted its previous place on the World Championships programme.
His estimates underline that the Paris event will not simply reproduce outdoor racing conditions. They are his assessment of the likely pace on the indoor track, rather than a confirmed competition forecast, but they illustrate the technical demands associated with a discipline built around close drafting behind large motorbikes.
British riders see a rare opening, alongside concerns
Dannie Watkinson and Gittings are among the British riders who could now target the 2027 event. Watkinson, a former British derny champion, finished sixth at the recent European Championships and said she would love the chance to race for the stayer title at a World Championships held within the main programme rather than as a separate event.
Gittings, a two-time British derny champion who has competed in stayer racing since 2012, said the inclusion had not been something he expected and that he hoped to compete at the Worlds. His ambition illustrates the competitive significance of the decision: a discipline previously confined to a narrow specialist scene will now offer a World Championship contest.
The UEC Track Stayer European Championships in Italy in July included men’s and women’s finals, with German riders winning both. Cycling Weekly said Watkinson’s race was the first women’s final held at those championships. The men raced for 40 minutes and the women for 30 minutes, a format the report said was likely to be used at the Track Worlds.
However, the revival has also prompted safety and access questions. An anonymous international track coach told Cycling Weekly that the combination of high speeds and heavy motorcycles was troubling, particularly when riders were competing for a rainbow jersey and might take decisions they would otherwise avoid.
The UCI had not released qualification details when the report was published. That leaves the scale of British participation unresolved, but the programme decision has given riders such as Watkinson and Gittings a concrete championship target in a discipline Curran described from his own experience as both exceptionally demanding and exhilarating.