Match Sprint Standoff

Controls

↑

Up the track: climb the banking. Costs speed

↓

Down the track: dive off the banking. Gives the speed back

→

More effort: each tap adds 5%; hold to keep adding. Past your riding-hard pace, energy drains fast

←

Less effort: each tap takes 5% off; hold to keep going. Ease off to recover; at 0% you soft-pedal and brake. Also sits up out of a sprint

Space

Jump into the full sprint. Press again to sit up and save energy; again to jump again

L

Look back over your shoulder

P M

Pause, sound

How a match sprint works

• The draw decides who starts in front. That rider must lead, at walking pace or faster, to the pursuit line on the far side. Come past them and the job is yours. Dawdle and the heat restarts with you in front; do it twice and you're relegated.
• Two standstills a heat, 30 seconds each at most. After that the starter sends the rider in front on, and one who won't go loses the heat.
• The sprinters' lane runs between the black and red lines. In the last 200 m, a rider in front who is in it must stay in it to the line, and nobody may drop into it in front of a rider already there without a clear lead of half a bike length. Break either rule and you're relegated. With no room below the lane, you pass a rider in it on the outside.
• The effort bar shows the effort you have set (the number and the tick) and what your legs are giving (the bar), as a share of a full sprint. Your rider holds that effort, so tuck in behind a wheel and the same effort carries you faster.
• The banking is a battery. Climbing it costs speed; diving off it gives the speed back, right when you need it. Hold a high line and the bends lift you and slow you down, then hand the speed back on the straight. Ride too slowly and the steep bends won't hold you up.
• The draft behind your rival saves energy and carries you faster than the rider in front. Pull out at the right time and you slingshot past.
• Energy is one bar. Jump too early and you fade before the line. Jump too late and the rival is gone.
• You never get it all back. Ease off and energy recovers (soft-pedal for faster), but only to 20 points above the lowest it has been; the energy bar greys out the rest. Full gas recovers nothing.
• You can't see right behind you. A rival on your wheel is only a faded shape. Look back for the exact gap and how much he has left in his legs; it costs a little speed.
• Your final 200 m time is shown after every heat. Sprinters brag about this number.

The tournament

• Pick a rider: a Diesel (stamina), a Kilo rider (a bit of both) or a Sprinter (top speed).
• Qualify with a flying 200 m. The fastest time is seed 1 and meets the slowest qualifier, seed 8, in the quarter-finals.
• Seven rivals, each with their own tactics. Their matches against each other are raced too, so the bracket can surprise you.
• Win the semi-final to ride for gold; lose it and you ride for bronze. Make the top three and there's a medal ceremony.
• Points for your flying 200, every heat you win (more in later rounds, plus a bonus for a fast final 200), every match you win, and a medal.

All riders are fictional. Any resemblance to someone at your local track is your problem.