Six international riders competing in the Keirin World Series—Joseph Truman (29, Great Britain), Matthew Richardson (27, Great Britain), Harry Lavreysen (29, Netherlands), Ellesse Andrews (26, New Zealand), Hetty van de Wouw (27, Netherlands), and Mathilde Gros (27, France)—held a press conference in Tokyo on the 11th ahead of the event.
The spotlight is on Lavreysen, who claimed three gold medals in the keirin, sprint, and team sprint events at the 2024 Paris Olympics. This marks his first participation in Japanese keirin. With a smile, he shared his ambitions: “I’m the same age as Joseph Truman, and we’ve been racing together for 10 years. One day while we were at a bar in Canada, we talked about how cool it would be to race in Japanese keirin. After that, he got invited to Japan, and I was really jealous. But now, being here together in Japan feels like a dream come true. I’m also thrilled because Japan is the birthplace of keirin. I believe I’m strong in the sprint, but I think there will be more lead-out racing in Japan. I want to race safely, and staying at the front is the safest way.”
The Keirin World Series is scheduled to take place across 10 rounds, starting with Hofu (June 3–5), followed by Kokura (June 26–28), Aomori (July 3–5), Ito (July 10–12), Kishiwada (July 20–22), Tachikawa (July 27–29), Wakayama (August 6–9), Yokkaichi (August 17–19), Gifu (August 24–26), and Kawasaki (August 30–September 1).