Here is our 65+ 4Km 16 laps of the 250 track team pursuit video courtesy of my wife - good videography. We were 4 of 4 teams. We set the lineup based upon size and projected capability. We set the lap times at 22 seconds per lap based upon one lap pulls with the goal of finishing together. There was one racer who was a 23 second lap guy and we hoped he could hang. It turned out that he took two pulls and came off and we finished with 3 and picked up the pace for the last two kilos.
Our start was a little rocky when the second man got hung up at the start. My job was to get on his wheel however, I did not see him and just kept going and staying in my lane waiting and hoping he would show up. By the time he came through, he was accelerating and now I had to accelerate more than I would have liked. It put even more pressure on our last racer.
We got together on the back straight. When we came through for our second lap time, the call was 20.8. Okay, that is a time we should have been able to do but too fast for our one guy. I slowed the pace to target on the 3rd lap.
Of the four teams, we had the best execution even taking into account the start. The other teams, although faster were not great. One team almost crashed as a 4th rider was a 1/4 lap behind at the start and stayed there for a lap and the the first rider came off the banking and almost hit him on lap 2 driving him off the track over the light blue band onto the dark blue apron,
Fortunately, no one crashed. I asked the officials if that was a relegation for riding off the track. The answer is no because it was on the straight section and they did not gain advantage. Well, the advantage was they did not crash. Contrast that ruling to a ruling in the points race where riders were warned for riding on the light blue band. We take our officiating as we find it and I just ride these things and let the officiating to officials. If the other team would have been relegated, we got a medal. So no points awarded for riding on the track.
16 laps is a long distance for team pursuit and it is the distance used in the Olympics and international racing/pro racing. It is interesting that UCI used to have the distance set at 3km or 12 laps for the 50+ masters so it was 4 men 3km. In 2018, in LA, the women complained that they were not be treated as equals to men since they had to race 3 women 3km.
The rules were changed to 3 women 2Km. Then it was changed again to the current 4 men 4Km and 4 women 4Km. So the women got what they asked for…equivalence to men. But how did men go from 3k to 4K? And the real complaint from the women was not enough age groups NOT the distance or the number of riders. Be careful for what you ask!
Now the problem for the women is not enough women to fill out teams. We have a similar problem for the men as the age category gets older. The men would be better off with 3 men 3km.