Van Riessen makes a comeback at the track cycling World Cup after a heavy fall at Games

Laurine van Riessen will make her comeback next week at the Track Cycling World Championships in Roubaix, France, more than two months after her heavy fall at the Tokyo Olympics.

The 34-year-old Van Riessen, like reigning Olympic champion Shanne Braspennincx, has been selected for the keirin, the Dutch cycling association KNWU reported on Friday.

In that sprint part, it went wrong for Van Riessen on August 5.

The former skater went down hard in the quarterfinals of the Games and was left with several broken ribs, a broken collarbone and a bruised lung.

The Dutchman, who was in a Japanese hospital for two weeks, did not participate in the European Track Cycling Championships in Grenchen, Switzerland last week, but is fit enough for the World Cup in Northern France (20-24 October).

Selection Women's Track Cycling World Championships

• Sprint: Shanne Braspennincx

• Keirin: Shanne Braspennincx, Laurine van Riessen

• Omnium: Maike van der Duin

• Scratch: Maike van der Duin

• Points race: Kirsten Wild

• Couple race: Kirsten Wild and Amy Pieters

Small Dutch team due to UCI rules

The Netherlands is forced to send a relatively small team to the World Cup in Roubaix.

The UCI International Cycling Union adheres to the rule that riders are only welcome at a team event if their country has met the requirement to have participated in at least one Nations Cup race.

Partly because of the corona pandemic, the KNWU decided not to send Dutch people to Nations Cup competitions in Hong Kong, Saint Petersburg and Cali.

The cycling association still hoped for a dispensation for the teams that became European champions last week, but that did not come.

As a result, the team sprinters Kyra Lamberink, Hetty van de Wouw and Steffie van der Peet are not allowed to participate in the World Cup.

The same goes for Jan-Willem van Schip and Yoeri Havik, the brand new European champions in the coupling race.

The Netherlands may participate in the men's team sprint (Jeffrey Hoogland, Harrie Lavreysen, Roy van den Berg) and the women's torque race (Kirsten Wild and Amy Pieters), because those teams are automatically placed as defending champions.

Selection World Championship track cycling men

• Team sprint: Jeffrey Hoogland, Harrie Lavreysen, Roy van den Berg (reserve Sam Ligtlee)

• Sprint: Jefrey Hoogland, Harrie Lavreysen

• Keirin: Jeffrey Hoogland, Harrie Lavreysen

• 1 Kilometer time trial: Sam Ligtlee, Jeffrey Hoogland

• Omnium: Roy Eefting

• Scratch: Roy Eefting

• Points race: Vincent Hoppezak

The Netherlands won six golds in 2020

At the previous World Cup, which took place more than a year and a half ago in Berlin, the Netherlands took no fewer than nine medals: six times gold, two times silver and one time bronze.

In addition to the team sprinters and Wild/Pieters, Lavreysen (sprint and keirin) and Sam Ligtlee (1 kilometer time trial) also hope to extend their title.

The 39-year-old Wild, who extends her career for a few more weeks before the World Championship track cycling, will not start in the scratch section, which she won last year.

In addition to the coupling race, she does ride the points race.