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Connie Carpenter offers a primer on the Omnium in time for Sunday's world championship in that event.
Editor's Note: Connie Carpenter is in Pruszkow, Poland, covering the Track World Championships for VeloNews.com while supporting her son, Taylor Phinney. Carpenter is a former world champion on the track and an avid fan of track cycling.
The omnium is a pentathlon — it combines sprint with endurance distances and is carried out all on the same day. The winner of each discipline is given 1 point, 2nd receives 2 points and so on down to the last place (in this case, 18th). Consistency is rewarded and one bad race can put you out of the running.
The first event is a flying 200 meters, followed by a scratch race, a 3k time trial (2k for the women), a points race and a kilometer (500 meters for the women). The first time this was included in the worlds, American Brad Huff won a bronze medal.
Last year, Kiwi Hayden Godfrey won the men’s Omnium by placing 3rd, 1st, 4th, 7th and 4th respectively for a total of 19 points. He is back to defend his title. Second place Leigh Howard (Australia) is also back, he was 9 points behind Godfrey last year.
Saturday, the women contested the omnium for the first time at the World Championships. As they headed into the final event — Australian Josephine Tomic and Canadian Tara Whitten were tied. Tomic had a great 500 meter time trial and earned her first elite world title.
The Madison was crazy and wild as usual — the Danes flew, the Aussies made the right moves and the Czechs were sneaky … and lucky! Thanks to Mark Cavendish for making it more thrilling and for valiantly trying to defend his world title. Unfortunately, his partner was crashed by another rider, and they never got a lucky break. The U.S. duo of Colby Pearce and Daniel Holloway were in the thick of it but couldn’t hold the Danes speed when they took a lap from the field.
The women’s sprint final was as close as possible (Pendleton defeating Kanis) and every seat in the house was full. It was great night of racing in Poland. Sunday is the final day — with women’s points race, men’s sprints, and the all-day Omnium.
Stay tuned!
--Connie
