Katie Archibald showed she’s far from lost her Olympic form with a win in the Omnium at the European Championships last night.
It was Archibald’s second gold medal of the event in Paris – having claimed the Individual Pursuit win already.
Recent changes made by the UCI mean that the Omnium now consists of a Scratch race (first to the line), Tempo race (points every lap), Elimination race (last rider left on the track!) and Points race (points for intermediate sprints).
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Archibald won the sprint in the Scratch race, but entered the Tempo race in fifth as some riders had already lapped the field. She lapped the field once in the Tempo race, taking her up the standings – but it was the Elimination race where Archibald showed incredible prowess.
Just as Archibald advised us recently – she seemed to ride the Elimination as a race of two halves. In the fast half, she stayed in the bunch, hiding from the air. In the second half, she brought herself closer to the front where there was no danger of being the eliminated last rider over the line. When there were only two left on the track, Archibald put her pursuit skills to use and rode away from her competition.
Going into the final event – the Points race – Archibald led the Omnium standings. The margins were tight though, Lotte Kopeky of Belgium was only six points back and Dutch legend Kirstin Wild just eight. Wild marked Archibald like a shadow, and the two took one lap together (gaining them both 20 points). Eventually, Archibald managed to distance Wild, gaining points via intermediate sprints to cement her Omnium win.
First Women’s Madison at Euro Champs – Silver for GB
After several years of riders and fans asking – the UCI have FINALLY seen fit to add a women’s Madison race to proceedings.
The Madison event is raced in pairs – one rider gets stuck into the action, whilst the other recovers. When the recovering rider takes over, the finishing rider gives them a ‘handsling’ which acts as a push back into the race.
Riding the first ever European Championships Women’s Madison for Team GB were Emily Kay and Emily Nelson. They led the event early on, but dropped back to fourth place by the time there were just ten laps to go.
They brought it back with a final hard effort, to take silver, second only to elite Belgium pairing Lotte Kopecky and Jolien D’Hoore.
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