10/16/2026
Please enjoy this write up by Ed Kissee!
Ed Kissee finished up the season last week at the UCI Masters Track World Championships in London UK, winning a Silver medal in the Team Sprint.
Ed rode on the top American age group team in the Team Sprint. He was also a last-minute call up in the other team discipline, the Team Pursuit, riding for the second American team. Ed also competed in two individual events, the Match Sprints and the 500m Time Trial.
In the Team Sprint, Ed rode the anchor leg in both the qualifier and the finals. In the qualifier, Ed rode a strong finishing lap to hold off a challenge from the spirited South African team to make it into the Gold/Silver finals. In the finals, a younger Australian team took Gold while Ed and his team took Silver.
In the Team Pursuit, Ed rode the qualifier for the team, helping them to qualify for the finals in the 3rd/4th race. In that qualifier Ed’s team just missed the Gold/Silver finals by one second. Ed did not ride the finals, as the alternate rider was given the opportunity to ride and the team fell just short of the Bronze. Even though the team did not win in the finals, giving the alternate rider a ride in the finals proved to be an amazing and uplifting experience for the guys on the team. That decision would pay dividends later as the alternate rider paid back his teammates in the mass start races by working for one of our teammates and helping him to get on the podium. Our alternate rider then also went on to ride an amazing Individual Pursuit and made it onto the podium himself. In the end, everyone on this team made it onto a podium in other events, teaching all of us a valuable life lesson about friendship, teamwork, and sportsmanship.
Even though Ed did not win the Match Sprint tournament, Ed had a memorable experience there. Ed easily qualified for the tournament and ultimately made it into the quarterfinals, where he had to face the current, and perennial Match Sprint World Champion, who is a track cycling legend and a 1988 Olympian who rarely loses any heats, and who was expected to go 2-0 in this round. But that is not how it played out. Ed won the second heat! He took the champion to a final and deciding ride, before bowing out in the final. Ed said that he had more people congratulate him for winning that heat than when he won a World Championship before! It was definitely the highlight of the week.
In the final race, the 500m TT, which is not Ed’s preferred race, Ed rode well, placing in the top ten.
All in all, it was a great year for Ed, winning two National Championships, setting a National record, winning three State Championships, winning a Silver at Worlds, and winning an improbable sprint heat against a great champion.
