The OCBC Cycle Speedway Championships took place last Saturday morning, 6 May 2023, at the Singapore Sports Hub.

Winners 

Emerging as winners in the Club category were Allied World Quantum Racing A, and the Corporate category winners were OCBC Bank.

The Speedway Championships is a mainstay in Singapore’s cycling calendar.

The race format

The unique race format sees teams of four riders, split into two pairs, riding a total of 10 laps around the 1km Stadium Drive circuit. Two cyclists ride the first five laps, then they hand over to their team mates for the second five. Teams are ranked according to the finish time of the second pair of riders.

A total of 14 teams, comprising of both returning and new ones, had battled it out in the Club category.

Past winners vying for the 2023 title had included Allied World Racing (2022) and Specialized Dynasty Mavericks (2018, 2019). In the corporate category, past winners Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and OCBC Bank made a return.

Club championships 

The Club championships saw Allied World Quantum Racing A win narrowly in a timing of 17min 56.1sec against second placed Specialized Dynasty Mavericks A who finished in 17min 56.5sec.

Said Allied World’s Daniel Cooper, 32, “It’s nice to be able to win with some of the same team members and to be able to have the depth in the team so that we can pick different people.”

He added, “Winning together makes the difference. It is not about crossing the line first. You have to win as a team.”

Their strategy

On their racing strategy, team mate Matthieu Bedard, 42, said, “We had different ideas in mind. One of them we applied in the last lap, which is one of the team mates control the pace during the race and the other one takes off at a pace so that the others would not be able to catch up. So that forces the whole peleton to start working really, really hard.”

He continued: “Then at the end, the other team mate who was behind, he is a very strong sprinter, and he will take off as soon as we get near the end. That allowed us to win today.”

Corporate challenge

In the corporate challenge, the winners were OCBC Bank who clocked a time of 19min 36.3sec and beat the second placed SCDF with their time of 19min 44.7sec. Third place was Advanced Micro Devices with their Time of 20min 0.4sec.

Said Donald MacDonald, 51, OCBC Bank, “I am ecstatic and proud to win this. The team has competed seven times but it is our first time winning. It is a combination of hard work and team effort.”

Other events 

Other rides that took place on Saturday included the Mighty Savers Kids and Family Rides which saw over 300 children aged between two and 12 participating.

In the weekend-long cycling fiesta, Sunday’s events saw the 40km Sportive Ride and 20km Straits Times Ride taking place. Click Here for my review of the Sportive Ride.

The virtual events and the Spin Ride by CRU are still ongoing until 5 June.