Kirsten Wild and Amy Pieters of the Netherlands clinched their third women's Madison title at the world track cycling championships on Saturday as the tournament became a showcase for the sport's veterans.

The 39-year-old Wild and her teammate, 30, had also dominated the event in 2019 and 2020.

French pair Clara Copponi and Marie Le Net took second place just as they did last year.

Victory was a welcome relief for the Dutch who were fourth at the Tokyo Olympics in the event which takes place over 120 laps and features 12 sprints.

Germany's Lisa Brennauer took the women's individual pursuit crown with the 33-year-old holding off compatriot Franziska Brausse, 22, by more than four seconds.

The Olympic champions in team pursuit swept the podium with Mieke Kroeger grabbing a bronze.

Lea Sophie Friedrich, also of Germany, defended her 500m title in a time of 33.057sec.

Russian duo Anastasiia Voinova, a two-time world champion, and Daria Shmeleva filled out the podium.

Highly-rated British rider Ethan Hayter claimed the Omnium with the 23-year-old Londonder seeing off New Zealand's Aaron Gate and Elia Viviani of Italy, the 2016 Olympic champion.

Meanwhile, Italian riders at the championships lost bikes worth 10,000 euro ($11,600) each to thieves, local authorities told AFP.

The local authorities said the bikes disappeared late on Friday or early on Saturday, but did not say how many had been stolen.

"They forgot the recommendation to leave the bikes in the velodrome until the end of the championships," Yannick Gomez, director of the departmental board for public safety, told AFP.

Competition organisers told AFP all the racers who lost bikes had already finished their participation.

They also said the thieves took road bikes as well as track bikes, including some belonging to star time trialer Filippo Ganna.

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