Keirin in Japan: like horse racing - only with wheels

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2015 in the Velodrome of Kawasaki: If you screw up your eyes, you might think you're looking at a racecourse

Chris McGrath / Getty Images

The race goes over 2000 meters: first a pacemaker increases the pace, then all racing cyclists start the final sprint at the same time. Keirin is one of the sprint disciplines on the track, it is dynamic, but also extremely dangerous when the drivers hit the gaps at up to 70 kilometers per hour. "It's also called the fighting sprint," says Tomáš Bábek.

Bábek was European champion in keirin, won bronze at the 2017 World Cup and is also an expert on an amazing keirin parallel world that exists on the other side of the globe. There, where the sport was invented - as a sport to fill the Japanese treasury after the Second World War. Today in Japan are annualBillions in around 40,000 races on 50 tracks in the country.

Around 2500 athletes are on the road in six driver classes and six racing categories - and a few international drivers who are invited to this other world every year for six months. In 2017 and 2018, Bábek was one of six so-called Gaikokujin, one of six "people from abroad".

Bootcamp in the mountains

To become a keirin driver in Japan, you have to complete an expensive one-year training course. The rush is great, as you can earn a lot of money with a license, which is also the incentive for international athletes like Bábek to accept invitations from the organizing state Keirin Foundation. "In the racing categories in which we are allowed to take part, there is around 10,000 euros for a win, even the last one still gets 1500", says Bábek, who receives 500 euros for a success in the UCI World Cup. "The winner of the final Grand Prix at the end of the year wins almost one million euros - driving for three minutes."

According to official information, around ten percent of the numerous national applicants are admitted to the state-run Keirin School every year. Isolated in the mountains of Shuzenji on the Izu peninsula, this training facility resembles a boot camp: from the morning roll call at 6.45 a.m. to dinner at 5.45 p.m., training takes place every day on the road, rollers and rail. The basics of track cycling is also on the schedule, as many only come into contact with it here for the first time.

Ride is on steel wheels, brand new, but made in the traditional way. They are heavy and at the same time soft, and also have straps instead of the clipless pedals that are common today. "You have to get used to it again," says Bábek, who like all Gaikokujin also has to go to school, but only for two weeks - and without a shaved head or uniform. A theoretical final exam on the Keirin rules is just as much a part of it as the practical test: disassembling and reassembling a bicycle in a learned sequence:

Keirin is also a parallel world in Japan's sports system. As lucrative as it is, it is so little regarded because of its background as a betting sport. There was hardly any overlap between the Keirin professionals and the national team. The Keirin motherland has not had a winner and only one world champion since it was accepted into the 2000 Olympic program.

That should change for the games in the Japanese capital. The country has invested in this, brought in the best trainers and scientists, and built new training centers with the best equipment. Yūta Wakimoto won silver at the track cycling world championships that year. After the postponement of the games, the Japanese have one year left to break the dominance of the Dutch.

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During the corona crisis, no spectators are allowed at the Keirin, but otherwise the races today usually take place in front of empty stands, the players sit in the betting halls in the belly of the velodrome

Because so much money is at stake in Keirin betting, special precautions are taken for the race weekends: To prevent manipulation, the drivers are forbidden from any contact with the outside world during the three-day competitions. Telephones, computers, every device with Bluetooth must be handed in when entering the Velodrome. The two foreign drivers and their translator are accommodated in rooms with tatami mats, privacy is only created by a curtain.

Despite its status as one of the few sports that can be bet on in Japan, the aging Keirin has problems. Income has been falling steadily since the 1990s, and the players who bet their salary on the racetrack are getting older. To inspire younger Japanese, women were again admitted in 2012 and the races of the so-called girl keirin were advertised with a national TV campaign that showed the riders in dresses and high heels. "For women, dressing up for competitions is part of their training," recalls Miriam Welte.

The 2014 Olympic champion was one of two riders from abroad who were invited for two months. In contrast to the men, Welte and Helena Calas were paid for their stay. Before his first race, Bábek had already spent 10,000 euros on flights, accommodation and racing bikes. However, women also earn a lot less.

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Miriam Welte (left) was one of two foreign drivers in Japan with Helena Calas in 2014. "I really enjoyed the time," said the six-time world champion

The competition weekends themselves are highly formalized. Before each run, the drivers are sent on a neutral lap where they can be judged by the players for their stakes. "It's like horse racing, but the cyclist is the horse," says Welte.

The men usually get together in teams, the tactics are announced before the races. The women drive according to international regulations, so no contact is allowed. It is different with men. "It gets really tough in the race," says Bábek, who got along well with the drivers outside the track. "But in the race everyone fights for themselves." And the fight often starts before the starting shot: some drivers try to intimidate with loud shouts, others paint pentagrams in front of the wheels with salt. And while every rider wears protectors in a race, there are also those who start with snowboard protectors. "You already know: Okay, you should be careful of the driver," says Bábek. Many wanted to win against the Gaikokujin anyway. "It's all about taking the gajin out of the running." Gaijin is the negative connotation of the word for non-Japanese.

It's a crazy world, this Keirin in Japan. Miriam Welte and Tomáš Bábek would do it again. But Bábek also says: "And when I sit there before my first race, I will think: Tomáš, why did you do that?"