French sprinter Mickael Bourgain will in action at the Manchester Velodrome on Sunday, December 11, looking to defend his crown in the second JKA Japanese Keirin and take home the £15,000 cash first prize. Bourgain won the inaugural JKA Japanese Keirin in January this year, narrowly beating Shane Kelly and team mate Gregory Bauge to victory.
World Sprint Champion Rene Wolff, who didn't make it past the first round of the JKA Japanese Keirin earlier this year, won't be competing and neither will Great Britain's Jamie Staff, who has pulled out due to visa complications in the US where he is based. Despite this, the start list looks very strong: Olympic Keirin Champion Ryan Bayley and World Keirin Champion Tuen Mulder will be looking to take a large slice of the £47,000 prize money along with Chris Hoy, Arnaud Tournant, Theo Bos, Shane Kelly, Barry Forde and Craig MacLean.
"The money is obviously a big incentive," commented MacLean. "But once you get out there and line up on the start line that is the last thing on your mind. The Keirin is such a tough event and you need to be able to react to everything so focus is the key. Of course it would be great to win some cash but there will be a lot of tough racing to get through before that."
Start List
Shane Kelly (Australia)
Ryan Bayley (Australia)
Barry Forde (Barbados)
Mickaël Bourgain (France)
Arnaud Tournant (France )
Jan Van Eijden (Germany)
Ivan Vrba (Czech Republic)
Craig MacLean (Great Britain)
Ross Edgar (Great Britain)
Chris Hoy (Great Britain)
Josiah Ng On Lam (Malaysia)
Theo Bos (Netherlands)
Tuen Mulder (Netherlands)
Jose Antonio Escuredo Raimondez (Spain)
Jose Antonio Villanueva Trinidad (Spain)
Andriy Vynokurov (Ukraine)
Takahiro Arai (Japan)
Narihiro Inamura (Japan)
Harutomo Watanabe (Japan)
Takashi Kaneko (Japan
