Harrie Lavreysen arrived at the final day of the 2025 World Championships in Santiago having already won three rainbow jerseys. He had started the week in the Dutch team sprint, won the keirin the following evening and then, on Friday, added the kilometre. The individual sprint still remained, and by Sunday evening he had won that as well to become the first rider to take four titles at a single Track World Championships.
It was an extraordinary championship, but also a useful example of where the non-Olympic events now sit within track cycling. Lavreysen did not need the kilo to demonstrate that he was the leading sprinter of his generation, and it offered nothing that could later be repeated at the Olympic Games. He nevertheless put two additional standing-start kilometres into an already crowded week, won the title, recovered and went on to beat Matthew Richardson in the sprint final two days later.
Once all four jerseys were won, the kilo became an important part of what made the week exceptional. Lavreysen had not simply won every Olympic sprint event available to him; he had won every sprint title available at the World Championships. There is now a four-title benchmark for other sprinters to consider, even though one quarter of it sits outside the Olympic programme.
Shanghai will offer exactly the same four titles again. Whether the best sprinters should actually try to win all of them is rather less straightforward.
When the kilo is worth two more rides
The kilometre has become more relevant to modern sprint programmes at much the same time as the Olympic programme has continued without it. Bigger gears, increasing emphasis on standing-start performance and the demands of team sprint mean that many of the riders capable of being very good at the kilo are already being developed inside national sprint squads. The move to a full kilometre for the women has reinforced that relationship, bringing both championships onto the same distance and making the event a broader test of acceleration, speed and the ability to sustain it.
For some riders the opportunity is obvious. A rider used prominently in team sprint, but without the outright speed or tactical strength to be their nation's leading match sprinter, may find the kilo offers their best chance of an individual world title. They are not stepping away from their normal preparation to become a kilo specialist; much of what makes them useful to the team sprint is also what makes the kilometre worth riding.
The choice looks rather different for someone expected to contend for sprint and keirin. Reaching the kilo final means a qualifying ride followed by another full kilometre for the title, and neither is an effort that can be hidden inside a championship week. Lavreysen spoke in Santiago about needing to recover and preserve enough energy for the sprint after winning the kilo, which was hardly surprising given that his week had already contained team sprint and keirin before he reached Friday's time trial.
His success makes the decision more difficult rather than easier for the next rider. Winning all four now has a place in the sport because somebody has done it, while medalling across team sprint, keirin, kilo and sprint would show a range that very few sprinters possess. A rider chasing that distinction has a reason to take on the extra work that has nothing to do with Olympic selection.
Another rider with the same ability may look at the programme and leave the kilo alone. If the sprint is their principal target, or the keirin provides a better chance of a title, there is little benefit in pretending that two additional maximal efforts have no cost simply because another rainbow jersey is available. The kilo can be one rider's biggest individual opportunity while another rider from the same sprint squad treats it as an unnecessary addition to the week.
Pursuit riders already live in the Olympic event
The individual pursuit is different because there is far less separation between the rider contesting it and the Olympic event from which they have supposedly been excluded. The athletes capable of winning an IP world title are generally already integral to their national team pursuit programme, with years of preparation directed towards riding quickly over four kilometres in an aerodynamic position.
Josh Charlton is a useful recent example. He took silver in both the individual and team pursuits in 2024 before winning the individual title in Santiago a year later. The rider opposite him in the 2025 final was Rasmus Pedersen, who had helped Denmark win the team pursuit world title the previous evening.
Nothing about that final looked detached from Olympic track cycling. It was populated by riders produced by the same systems that build team pursuits, using the same physiological qualities and much of the same work on position, equipment, pacing and speed. The major difference was that there were no teammates alongside them once the clock started.
That gives the individual pursuit a particular value for riders whose Olympic careers are otherwise tied to a team. A pursuiter can spend an entire Olympic cycle being one of four riders, or one of five or six being rotated through a squad, with every major performance discussed in terms of the collective. At the World Championships they can ride the same distance and, if they are good enough, leave with an individual rainbow jersey.
The fact that the event stops at Worlds may actually reinforce its importance to those riders. There is no Olympic individual pursuit to target two years later and no larger championship at which the result will be superseded. A rider who wants to establish themselves as the best individual pursuiter in the world has one place to do it.
National programmes will still prioritise the team pursuit because Olympic medals shape funding, selection and the work carried out over an entire cycle. That does not require the riders themselves to view the IP as an afterthought. For someone who has spent years becoming exceptionally good at riding four kilometres, it may be the only opportunity to turn that work into an individual championship.
Where the bunch races fit
The scratch, points and elimination races expose another feature of the modern World Championships: strong endurance nations have more good riders than the Olympic programme has places to put them.
The Olympic structure is relatively narrow. One rider gets the omnium, two form the Madison pairing and a larger group feeds the team pursuit. Within a major endurance programme there can be several riders good enough to race at World Championship level who do not occupy one of those obvious individual roles, particularly when the same rider is being protected for both omnium and Madison.
The Worlds programme gives those squads much more room. Scratch, points and elimination each provide a separate individual championship, allowing riders whose principal Olympic role may be in the TP to race for something of their own. In a particularly deep nation, somebody can be outside the preferred omnium or Madison combination without being remotely outside the level required to become World Champion.
These races are sometimes spoken about as though they are where the remaining riders are placed once the Olympic events have been allocated, but the fields do not support that view. Lorena Wiebes won the scratch on the opening night in Santiago and went on to win the omnium, while Joshua Tarling won the points race before partnering Mark Stewart to silver in the Madison.
The leading riders can and do race them when the programme allows. An omnium rider already faces four races within that competition before Madison is even considered, so adding a points race or elimination elsewhere in the week brings another period of racing, preparation and recovery. A TP rider who is not required for either omnium or Madison may have far more reason to take that start and can approach it as a major target rather than an extra race.
A country may therefore have one rider who is clearly its omnium choice and two who make up an established Madison, yet still have another athlete capable of winning the world scratch, points or elimination title. The Olympic programme cannot accommodate all of those opportunities, but the ability does not disappear simply because there is no place for it there.
What else are they racing?
Shanghai will award all 22 titles between 14 and 18 October, compressing the Olympic and non-Olympic events into five days of racing. For riders capable of crossing between disciplines, what matters is not simply whether another race is winnable, but what else they are already being asked to do around it.
That can produce very different decisions within the same team. One sprinter may be selected for the kilo because team sprint and the kilometre represent their best medal chances, while another is kept away from it because the individual sprint and keirin are expected to take them through several rounds later in the week. Both can be physically capable of riding the kilo at World Championship level without the event holding the same place in their programme.
Endurance selection is even more fluid. The rider used heavily in team pursuit might also be the best option for the IP, while another member of the same squad takes the points or elimination. An omnium rider may appear in one of those races as well if the schedule allows it, but there is no particular reason to keep adding starts if the principal objectives of their championship already lie elsewhere.
This is why the non-Olympic titles do not sit neatly underneath the Olympic events. The IP is closely tied to team pursuit, the kilo increasingly draws on the same qualities being developed for team sprint, and the three standalone bunch races use riders from the same endurance squads that provide the Olympic TP, omnium and Madison selections.
For some athletes, that changes very little. An individual pursuit rider can know perfectly well that the team pursuit is the event around which their national programme is organised while still regarding the IP rainbow jersey as one of the defining achievements available to them. A rider whose best event is the kilometre does not become less of a world champion because their particular combination of sprint qualities is not represented at LA28.
For others, Olympic priorities will determine whether they even get the chance. A rider expected to challenge for the sprint may decide the kilo can wait; an omnium or Madison leader may leave a standalone bunch race to somebody else because there is more to lose than gain by adding another effort.
What is a World title worth?
For a pursuiter who spends most of the year training as part of a four-rider unit, the IP can be the one championship where the result belongs entirely to them. For someone sitting outside their nation's omnium or preferred Madison pairing, a points, scratch or elimination start can provide an individual opportunity that simply does not exist at the Olympics. For a team-sprint rider, the kilo may be the race that gives them the best chance of leaving China in a rainbow jersey.
At the other end of those same squads will be riders capable of winning the same events who never start them. Their Worlds may already contain enough, and the sprint, keirin, omnium or Madison may be important enough to make another title opportunity expendable.
Lavreysen showed in Santiago what can happen when a rider takes the opposite approach. He raced all four sprint disciplines, absorbed the extra kilometre efforts and finished the week with four world titles. The kilo had no Olympic equivalent waiting beyond it, but without it the week would not have been the complete sweep it became.
Shanghai will produce plenty of smaller versions of the same decision. One rider may have spent months targeting the kilo, individual pursuit or elimination, while another from the same national programme, perhaps equally capable of winning it, never enters because their week has been built around something else.
The same world title can be the centre of one rider's Worlds and the race another deliberately leaves alone.