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Great Britain’s Laura Trott claimed her second gold medal of the Glasgow Track World Cup in an absorbing omnium win at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.
The 20-year-old Olympic and world champion added to her team pursuit success with Dani King and Elinor Barker in the six-discipline event which brought her gold in London.
Wins on the final day in the individual pursuit and crucially, an epic effort in the last event, the 500m time trial, saw Trott overturn a two-point deficit from then-leader Australian Ashlee Ankudinoff, bringing the capacity crowd to its feet.
"I wanted to win - that is all it was," Trott said.
"I was in silver medal position and I was like 'I'm not having that, no way'. Coming into this being double world and Olympic champion and going home with silver... it just wasn't going to happen.
"I just love winning, I do, I love the feeling. I was worried that I wouldn't even get a medal after the shaky start I had."
"I knew the points race was going to go bad, it always does, but the flying lap I didn't expect to be that far down.
"I'm just so bad at bunch races, they always let me down, it doesn't matter how fit I am. I just have to do what I can in the 500m and normally it works."
It would be Great Britain’s only medal of the final day, taking their tally to six for the weekend. In the women’s keirin, Becky James and Jess Varnish finished fifth and ninth respectively.
The absences of Olympic sprint champion Jason Kenny as well as Lewis Oliva after crashes in Saturday’s keirin left Philip Hindes as GB’s sole representative in the men’s sprint, the 20-year-old ending in 12th as the Glasgow Track World Cup came to a conclusion.
British Cycling Olympic Podium Programme Trott had entered the final day at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in fourth overall in the omnium, with three events to contest.
A textbook elimination race in Saturday’s finale had propelled her up the overall rankings. The individual pursuit was Sunday’s opener, Trott forcing the issue with another win, her time 3.35.904. Seventh in the penultimate event, the scratch race, left Trott two points adrift of leader Ashlee Ankudinoff of Australia setting up a grand denouement in the 500m time trial.
As she did at the Olympic Velodrome in August, Trott delivered a stunning ride – 35.867 enough to win the time-trial and with Ankudinoff only managing fourth, the gold was hers. The two were tied on 24 points, but Trott’s better cumulative time in the flying lap, individual pursuit and time trial edged it for the Briton - her third consecutive omnium win after the world championships and London Olympics.
With four medals already between them in a productive weekend – including team sprint gold – the keirin remained for James and Varnish, the latter having come out on top in the previous evening’s racing when they met in the women’s sprint semi-finals.
Any signs of fatigue from a full programme of sprint racing were not evident in the first round. Sprint silver medallist Varnish not overworked to finish second in heat 1 to progress, James delivering a turn of pace in the final lap of heat 2 which none of her rivals were able to match.
James squeezed through her second round bout in third but Varnish, who has competed across four disciplines over the three days, had to settle for minor final, boxed out in final stages of her second round tie.
British sprint champion James attacked with two laps to go in her final, but was eventually passed in the final 100m to settle for fifth. Varnish battled for the back in 7th-12th place final, finishing ninth.
"To get a silver yesterday in the individual sprint, I was really happy with that," said Varnish. "With the keirin, it's about getting in there and learning."
Elsewhere in the sprinting, a planned line-up of three GB riders in the men’s sprint was reduced to just one. Jason Kenny - ‘feeling very sore after his crash’ in the Saturday’s keirin final according to sprint coach Iain Dyer - was withdrawn. There would be no ride for Academy athlete Lewis Oliva either. Representing Team SWI, he had left the track on a stretcher in the second round of the keirin, and would spend Sunday in A & E for an X-ray on his hand.
Olympic champion Philip Hindes remained for GB. The 20-year-old, who has spent the vast majority of the last six months in training for the man one role in the team sprint, qualified in 10th in the flying 200m lap.
It set up an eventful last 16 tie with the Czech Republic’s Pavel Kelemen which would require three attempts to deliver a winner. In the first race Keleman fell down the banking, before it was Hindes’ turn in race 2 as he clipped his opponent’s wheel. In the second re-run, Hindes allowed Keleman the sprinter’s lane and couldn’t get round leaving Hindes to settle for B quarter-final.
There he met Ireland’s Eoin Mullen, opting to come round in the final metres for a narrow win. The semi-final wouldn’t follow that pattern, Hindes leaving himself too much to do from the back against Australia’s Peter Lewis. It was a similar scenario in the 11th-12th place ride-off, Japan’s Yudal Nitta holding off the challenge at the line. Germany’s Steffan Boetticher the eventual winner.
Hindes later tweeted: “First proper sprint competition since junior worlds. You learn from mistakes and today I learned a lot!”
Results
