Controversy over national team selections in track cycling.

Lack of clear communication from PZKol

In recent weeks, uncertainty and doubts have emerged in the track cycling community regarding the organisation of the national team's work. To date, no official training plan for the 2026 season has been presented and no direct consultations with riders have been held, which points to a lack of direct communication between the federation's authorities and the cyclists. Many of them, unaware of the federation's decisions, continued preparing for the season and the European Championships at their own expense or with the support of their clubs.

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European Championships criteria announced just before the event

On 14 January 2026, PZKol published the qualification criteria for the European Championships in Konya, Turkey - just 17 days before the start of the event. None of the riders met these criteria. At the same time, a provision appeared allowing a rider to be selected at the request of the national team coach, after approval by the Sports Director and the PZKol Board, which in practice opened the way to discretionary decisions.

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Leading riders overlooked

On 22 January, the national team for the European Championships was announced. The squad did not include Wojciech Pszczolarski - an experienced and decorated middle-distance rider. In the 2025 season he regularly earned ranking points at UCI Track events, taking top placings and ranking as the third Polish rider in the Endurance ranking with 1635 points. Despite this, he was selected neither for the European Championships nor - according to unofficial information - for the 2026 national team.

The composition of the 2026 National Team has also not been published on the PZKol website, contrary to §3(5) of the Regulations on the selection of female and male riders to the national team of the Polish Cycling Federation, approved by resolution of the Board of the Polish Cycling Federation no. 10/01/2026 of 24 January 2026 on the approval of amendments to the Regulations on the selection of female and male riders to the national team of the Polish Cycling Federation. Moreover, pursuant to §1(2)(i) of the aforementioned Regulations, “Selection to the National Team” means an official PZKol document (based on a Board resolution) published on the website www.pzkol.pl. As of today, there is no resolution of the PZKol Board on the selection of female and male riders to the 2026 National Team to be found on the PZKol website.

The rider was not informed of the decisions directly - no one from PZKol contacted him either by phone or by e-mail. Like everyone else concerned, he learned of the European Championships squad only from an announcement published on the PZKol website. No formal criteria justifying the decision had been presented to him beforehand.

^{Wojciech Pszczolarski}

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New criteria for 2026 - further doubts

On 28 January 2026, the official criteria for national team selection for the 2026 season were published. The document revealed another controversy:

results achieved by elite men in UCI CL1 and CL2 class races were not included as a basis for qualification.

Meanwhile:

• in the criteria for elite women, UCI CL1 races are a normal part of the assessment,
• the criteria for U23 riders (both women and men) also take UCI CL1 races into account,
• only elite men have been deprived of this qualification pathway.

In practice, this means that riders who regularly represent Poland and their teams at international UCI events earn points and valuable experience that are then not taken into account as an argument for national team selection.
As a result, this limits their chances of competing at the most important events of the season, such as the World Championships or the European Championships.

It is worth noting that the criteria retain the possibility of selecting a rider “at the justified request of the national team coach, after acceptance by the Training Department”, which, in the absence of clear and public selection rules, opens the door to subjective decisions.

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The voice of the community

Brzeg native Wojciech Pszczolarski is currently a rider for EliteCore Track Team - a Wrocław-based team racing with a UCI Track Team licence, which successfully passed the approval process by the Polish Cycling Federation required to register the team with the UCI. This is a source of prestige for Polish track cycling.

The club supports the rider and stresses that this fight is not about one person, but about rules that should be transparent, equal and based on objective sporting results.

The lack of communication, unclear selection criteria and discrepancies between the written rules and the decisions actually taken raise serious questions about the transparency of the national team selection process for the 2026 season and are causing growing concern in the cycling community.

Not being selected for the national team effectively closes off many riders' path to sporting development, access to the training system and the chance to represent Poland at championship events. At the same time, it wipes out months of investment by clubs that fund their riders' participation in international competitions from their own resources.

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An uncertain tomorrow - when results alone no longer decide a place on the team

This whole situation raises far more serious questions than just individual selections. It shows how fragile and uncertain a rider's position in the national team training system can be. Today you can be a European Championships medallist, earning Olympic qualification points and pursuing a long-term sporting plan, and tomorrow - without a conversation, without an explanation and without clear criteria - you can disappear from the team.

Such a model not only undermines riders' trust in the institution, but also calls into question the point of long-term training and takes away the motivation of those who devote their entire lives to sport. When representing one's country is no longer a clear consequence of work and results, and the decision-making process becomes opaque, it is not only the careers of individual athletes that are at risk, but the future of the entire discipline.

Situations like this have a long-term impact on mental health, motivation and decisions about the rest of a career. Many riders then start asking themselves whether further commitment is still justified. It is a problem that many athletes in similar circumstances can relate to today.

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_{text: Dzmitry Prudnikau
editing: Łukasz Machowczyk}