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Great Britain’s Ed Clancy described his battle to win a bronze medal in the omnium as an ‘emotional rollercoaster’ in the Olympic Velodrome.
The 27-year-old, who had already picked up a gold medal in London as part of Team GB’s world record breaking men’s team pursuiters on Friday, finished day one of the six-discipline event in fourth place.
A second place finish in the 4km individual pursuit and 10th in the 15km scratch race on Sunday left Clancy in fifth with just the kilo remaining. The two-time Olympic champion then stopped the clock in an inspiring 1:00.981 for the four laps, winning the discipline and moving him into third overall to confirm a bronze medal – Denmark’s Lasse Hansen taking gold and France’s Bryan Coquard silver.
“I’ve always been saying that I’ve been coming here for the team pursuit as I always do I stick all my eggs in that basket,” Clancy said. “Perhaps mentally it was so hard getting up the next day to go into a full blown omnium.
“I had the form of my life – the kilo, the pursuit, the flying lap, PB by a mile in all of them."
Ed Clancy
“I had the form of my life – the kilo, the pursuit, the flying lap, PB by a mile in all of them. It’s just a shame in the bunch races I got torn apart by the specialists. I always knew it would be touch and go to get a medal. It’s an emotional rollercoaster out there, one minute you are winning the next you are completely out of the race. That was the story of the last two days.
“At one point I was looking at getting that gold medal in the scratch but it just slipped away.”
It ended an impressive Games for Clancy, who was the 2010 world champion in the omnium and had put in a rapid first lap out of the gate in the men’s team pursuit to help teammates Peter Kennaugh, Geraint Thomas and Steven Burke to gold and a world record. He also paid tribute to the fans in the velodrome and the backroom staff in the track centre.
“We’ve had so much support here, I have even had the great Mark Cavendish on the phone trying to help me out, the support has just been unbelievable. I’d just like to say thanks to all the staff - the management, the physios, they all work so hard and they’re the real heroes behind all this.”
