One to Watch: Men's Omnium
Ben Swift, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.
The Omnium is the latest addition to the Olympic calendar, consisting of 6 events: Flying Lap, Points Race, Elimination Race, Individual Pursuit, Scratch Race and Kilometre TT. The premise is simple enough. If you win an event, you get 1 point. 2nd place gets 2 points, 3rd place gets 3 points and so on. The rider with the fewest amount of points at the end of the event, wins!
With a maximum of 24 entrants allowed, qualifying is required at the start as usually more than 24 nations want to enter! Qualifying consists of 2 half length (15km/60 Laps) Points Races - the Top 12 in each proceed to the main event. This mainly removes the weakest riders from the competition, but the riders have to be careful to make sure they dont miss out - young Brit George Atkins failed to qualify for the Omnium in the Beijing round, which was an embarrassment for sure.
First event is the Flying Lap - an event also used as qualifying for the Sprint competitions. Riders will lap the Velodrome at the top of the banking, building up speed, before sweeping down to the centre to help build their speed and set the fastest lap possible. Then Event 2 is another Points Race! This time it is 30km long (120 laps) with Sprints ever 10 laps - worth 5,3,2 and 1 points for the first 4 riders. The winner is the rider with the most points in the race - with the added incentive of a 20 point bonus for gaining a lap. (Likewise though, a 20 point loss for losing a lap). If you are going to the Afternoon session, it really is Points Race galore as there is scheduled to be Qualifying rounds for the stand alone Men's Points Race, if enough riders enter that event - so there could be 5 Points Races in the Afternoon session.
But the highlight Omnium event of the day is the final event of the night - the Elimination race.
Omnium Elimination Race, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.
It's a dramatic race to watch. Like the Madison (which is sadly not present in the World Cup) it is a great spectator event inside the velodrome, which doesnt always transfer well onto the TV schemes. Every 2 laps the last rider in the field is knocked out of the race, with a device fitted to their bike to flash at them when they have been eliminated. Riders have to be aware throughout, its all too easy to find yourself at the back, and struggling to avoid elimination.
Part of the fun however, is when the inevitable happens, and a rider even refuses to drop out once he is eliminated, or claims not to realise he has been eliminated. Well, I say fun - it doesn't help having a rider interfering with the rest of the race, but it certainly helps add to the drama. And as numbers decrease, the race becomes increasingly tactical, all the way down to the final lap, where the final 2 riders battle it out for victory.
As a new event, its still a challenge to identify the standout riders for the event, and it's probably the most open of all Olympic events. Ben Swift looks set to ride for Great Britain, his previous Omnium experience being a 6th place at last year's World Cup in Manchester - his best event being the Elimination race, where he took 2nd behind Italian Elia Viviani. Viviani is in form on the road, and down to ride here. Roger Kluge (Germany), and Juan Esteban Arango (Colombia) have all won rounds of the Omnium this season - while consistency makes Brian Coquard (France) the World Cup leader, and he is also here! Shane Archbold (New Zealand) domianted the Manchester Omnium last year and is the World Silver medallist, while Gijs van Hoecke (Belgium) was the World Silver medallist. Ho Sung Cho (Korea) is 2nd in the World Cup standings, and was 2nd in Manchester last year, while Eloy Teruel (Spain), Martyn Irvine (Ireland), Wim Stroetinga (Netherlands) and Zachary Bell (Canada) are also worth a mention. That's 12 riders Ive mentioned there who are all capable of doing well - this is not an event to miss!
Olympic Events: Men's and Women's Team Sprint
Malaysia Team Sprint, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.
Qualifying is in the afternoon, Finals in the evening. For the Men, three riders take part - the first leads them over the first lap then peels off, the second leads them on the second lap, before the final rider does the final lap alone. Its the same format for the Women, but with only 2 riders.
For the Women, Kaarle McCulloch and Anna Meares are close to unbeatable - World record holders and World Champions for the past 3 years. Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish are the British entries and amongst the challengers for a Silver medal - with ultimate aspirations of Gold, but that will take a lot! China (Shuang Guo and Jinjie Gong), Germany (Kristina Vogel and Miriam Welte), France (Clara Sanchez and Sandie Clair) and Lithuania (Gintare Gaivenyte and Simona Krupeckaite) are also ones to watch. Ukraine are the World Cup leaders and will wear the World Cup jerseys - but this is more an award for consistency, the top teams have not ridden in every World Cup.
Britain are the Men's Olympic Champions, but it took them until Beijing to perfect their lineup 4 years ago. Jamie Staff retired, and since then they have struggled to find the right lineup for this year. It looks like it will be Ross Edgar, Jason Kenny and Chris Hoy this week - and we will have to see how they match up. France and Germany are the nations to beat. France (Michaël D'Almeida, Gregory Bauge and Kevin Sireau) were the World Champions - but Bauge received a backdated suspension for missing 3 drugs tests, with the suspension covering last year's Worlds - so instead the World Champions are Germany (Rene Enders, Maximillian Levy and Stefan Nimke). They certainly deserve it though, having taken away Britain's World Record in December with a time of 42.914. The Germany B-Team ErdGas 2012 will wear the World Cup leaders jerseys, while like with the team pursuit, the Russians could prove to be surprise contenders, and lets not forget Australia either!
British Gold Chance: Women's Team Pursuit
Already covered in the Day 1 preview, the finals of the Women's Team Pursuit are on Friday night. We'll get an idea of who is likely to win based on Thursday's qualification times, but on paper, this could be the best chance of a British victory today.
Not in the Olympics: Men's Kilometre, Women's Scratch Race and Men's Points Race
In an Olympic season, those events not featuring in the Olympics find themselves on the fringes of the World Cup scene, not featuring in every round. They will still all be in the World Championships, but it is harder to predict who will ride it, and who the favourites are.
Scratch Race, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.
In the Kilometre, riders have 4 laps to go as fast as possible, from a standing start. Chris Hoy is the Olympic Champion, and the Kilometre's controversial removal from the Olympics after Athens paved the way for Hoy to become the superstar he is today. Since then though, the Kilometre has undoubtedly lost it's former prestige. World Champion Stefan Nimke (Germany) leads the field but Look out for Brit Matthew Crampton in the Black and Red Team Sky colours. Mickael D'Almeida (France) and Simon van Velthooven (New Zealand) are other notable names on a 23 man startlist.
The clash of the Womens Team Pursuit and Womens Scratch Race is also not ideal, but with only four teams riding the Team Pursuit today, this might not be the case. We could see Women's Omnium riders use this event as a warmup before the Omnium starts on Saturday, or simply riders not down for other events. This seems to be the case for Dani King. She won't feature in either the Team Pursuit or the Omnium, so this will be her only race on the London boards - and she did take a Bronze in this event at the 2011 World Championships. The Scratch Race is simply a race to the line - first one to finish after the 40 laps is the winner. The laps prior to the finish should see action though, as riders attempt to gain a lap to increase their chances of victory. Kelly Druyts (Belgium) is the World Cup leader after winning the Cali round ahead of Katarzyn Pawlowska (Poland), and both are on the start list.
Finally, the last Points Race of the day! There could be as many as 6 on Friday in total, although I would guess that there wont be any need for Qualifiers for the standalone Men's Points Race given that it clashes with the Omnium. No British entrants for this unfortunately. Belgian Ignmar de Poortere came 2nd in the only Points Race World Cup in previous rounds, Cali, where Colombian Edwin Avila used home advantage to finish 3rd. Avila is the World Champion however, after being the only rider to take a lap in last year's World Championships. Look out for his rainbow bands!
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