OLYMPIANS ON TRACK
After a successful Games in Rio, Britain’s riders return to competition at the UEC European Track Championships on Wednesday with coverage of Saturday and Sunday’s racing on Eurosport. The event takes place at the Velodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in Paris and is a chance for some riders to move on from Rio and for others to make their claim for a place at the world championships in Hong Kong next year. Katie Archibald and Elinor Barker, the gold medallists who were part of the squad that set a new world record in the pursuit in Rio will be back. So too will be Steven Burke, who also won team pursuit gold and is joined in the endurance squad by Ollie Wood, who took a team pursuit bronze at the Under-23 European championships, alongside Mark Stewart, Matt Bostock and Kian Emadi. Younger members also feature in the men’s sprint with the Olympic team reserve Ryan Owens joined by the Senior Academy riders Jack Carlin and Joe Truman – as a trio they won the team sprint title at the Under-23 Championships earlier this year.
Chris Froome will learn what is ahead in his attempt to win a fourth Tour de France next year when the 2017 route is announced on Tuesday (Eurosport, 10.30am), with the grand départ set to take place in Düsseldorf.
ALL BLACKS RECORD ATTEMPT
A 57-15 rout of South Africa in Durban last Saturday wrapped up the Rugby Championship for New Zealand with a six-match clean sweep, success enough in itself but it also placed the All Blacks within striking range of breaking the record for consecutive Test victories. The win puts them on 17, a total they have made before between 1965 and 1969 and which was equalled by South Africa in 1997-1998, then again by New Zealand in 2013-14. They will look to better that feat on Saturday in the third and final Bledisloe Cup game against Australia and the odds look good. Their two meetings in the championship in August were won comprehensively by New Zealand: 42-8 away and 29-9 at home. Eden Park is host to the meeting and, most likely, some major celebrations (Sky Sports 3, 8am).
WOMEN’S EURO 2017 BUILDUP
England begin their run to next year’s European Championships, to be held in the Netherlands, with a friendly against France on Friday at Doncaster (8pm, BBC red button). The coach, Mark Sampson, has already named his squad for the game and it includes a return for the Manchester City striker Toni Duggan, after her side won the League and Cup double, as well as another chance for the promising 23-year-old Millie Bright, who plays in the midfield for Chelsea and made her debut against Belgian in a 2-0 win last month. England play Spain in another friendly the following Tuesday and the draw for Euro 2017 will be made on 8 November in Rotterdam.
FA CUP DRAW
With the fourth qualifying round coming to a conclusion this weekend, the draw for the first round proper of the FA Cup will take place on Monday (BBC2, 7pm) and there are already are 10 previous winners in the mix: AFC Wimbledon, Blackpool, Bolton, Bradford City, Bury, Coventry City, Notts County, Portsmouth, Sheffield United and Charlton.
LOOK OUT FOR …
Sounds exciting…Forget the Champions League, this is where it’s at: Chelsea’s U23s – the ones who aren’t out on loan – heading to Exeter on Tuesday in the people’s tournament: the hugely well-received and uncontroversial Checkatrade Trophy.
Sarcasm is the lowest form of …
It is. But then the Checkatrade Trophy is football’s lowest form of trophy, so it fits.
How did it come to this?
It’s been a tough few months. Fans launched a boycott the moment the old Johnstone’s Paint Trophy was reformatted – 16 ‘big-club’ academy sides joining 48 League One and League Two clubs. The first round of games in August – “Matchday One” – attracted crowds of 1,462 on average, down 20%. On Matchday Two, Portsmouth recorded their lowest post-War crowd of 1,355, 457 turned up to see Barnet play Norwich U23s, and Accrington tweeted after their 4-1 win at Chesterfield: “Reports of an away following of 2 at Chesterfield last night are untrue. We counted at least 6.”
What do the managers make of it all?
Premier League managers don’t make anything of it; League managers have been openly scorning it – flouting the rules which force them to field five ‘first-teamers’ against the big clubs’ kids. Bradford subbed their first-team keeper Colin Doyle after two minutes to give his understudy a run out – assistant Kenny Black explaining that Doyle had put in “a poor 45 seconds”.
Awkward.
It really is. MK Dons manager Karl Robinson called the format “rubbish... How can we have a development trophy for Premier League teams who can do what they want, yet we can’t develop our own players in it?”. Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder wants it killed off completely. “I wouldn’t be sad to see it go, not at all.”
What’s the league’s version of events?
Give it time. The thinking is that maybe people will start to love it by the time we get to April’s heady climax (Chelsea U23s 1 Everton U23s 0). League head Shaun Harvey: “We need to carry on and judge what the benefits are at the end, not now.”
What about this Exeter contest then?
In many ways it sums everything up – the game being played two weeks after the rest because Chelsea threatened to pull out if they were made to play in international breaks. Still, at least the people of Exeter can look forward to a big night. Chelsea’s kids suffered a 2-1 defeat at Swindon in their opener – so is another magic of the Checkatrade Trophy giantkilling on the cards?
Exeter v Chelsea U23, 7,45pm Tuesday
