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paintballimpact.com / Sports / Track Cycling Match Sprint
The Track Cycling Match Sprint
While races like the Tour de France consist of long distances, short matches that are hundreds of miles in length, track cycling events like the match sprint are short speed matches. Other speed cycling races include the Keirin, the BMX Track Race, and the mountain biking downhill competition. The match sprint is a short, three-lap race, during only which the final 200 meters is timed. A line is drawn 200 meters from the finish line, and is used as a guide for the clock. The race features two racers who start from the same line. A coin is tossed and the loser must lead for the entire first lap. After the second lap, the racers slow down to try to force the other rider into the lead position. Each racer hopes to come into the 200 meter line towards the end of the race behind the other racer to take advantage of his slipstream. The lead rider is at a disadvantage because he cannot see where the other rider is until he is right next to him. The entire match sprint event is a best of three heats, with the first player to win two heats the winner. The spring is one of the oldest cycling events, beginning with a world championship event in 1895. The Match Sprint has been a women's World Championship event since 1958.
The Keirin is another track cycling event that involves pure speed. Like the Match Sprint, the Keirin is a race that is not about just riding at a maximum speed for the entire race, but it involves a lot of thinking and maneuvering. Like the match race, the Keirin is also a race where riders cruise along at a moderate pace, conserving their energy, until an all out sprint at the end of the race. In this race, 9 riders start the course together, cruising around the track, behind a motorcycle that sets the pace of the race. After 2 or 3 laps, the motorcycle leaves the track, which gives the riders the go ahead to surge to full speed for the rest of the race. The entire course is about 2 kilometers long. This race includes a lot of rough play, roughing, and bumping, and only the toughest riders are built for this event. Keirin riders must be fast, built tough, and must possess the aggressiveness it takes to be able to push past and hold a position along the track (7 to 9 meters wide) and speeds the racers are cycling at combine for some exciting performances and some spectacular accidents. Top speeds in this event run as high as 60 kilometers per hour, daring speeds in such cramped conditions. There are other more regulated Keirin events that have been hosted by the World Championships since 1980 that have stricter rules prohibiting elbowing or pushing or cutting another rider off. The Keirin was created in Japan in 1998.
The track for the track cycling match sprint has a number of important features that makes it ideal for this race. To enable players to take turns without losing all their speed, the turns are banked at 22 to 42 degrees. Since many a match sprint involves close finishes, there is a photoelectric cell at the finish line that records the arrival of racers, and allows the finish order to be verified. At about the opposite side of the finish line is the 200 meter line. In sprint events like the match sprint, the clock starts when a race reaches this line.
Like the match sprint, paintball speedball matches feature short games that can last only a few minutes, and both are sports where the athletes are heavily reliant on technology, the marker for paintball, and the bicycle for the cyclist.
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