Leader, But Never The Winner

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The capacity crowd at the Olympic Velodrome roars in anticipation. Six highly trained and fit cyclists set off on a race for gold. And leading the way is a 65-year-old man on a motorbike. One of the more incongruous sights at the Olympics has been Peter Deary, who drives the derny, a two-stroke motorized bicycle that leads the riders in the keirin race.
The derny driver leads the riders for the first five and a half laps of the race; they may not pass him. Then he pulls off the track, and the riders sprint to the finish for the final two and a half laps, about 600 meters.