Just 5 events today - although the presence of two Omniums means that there is still a great amount of variety. The mixture of Day 2 of the Men's Omnium and Day 1 of the Women's Omnium actually means that all events of the Omnium will be ridden today.
One to Watch: Women's Sprint
Victoria Pendleton, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.
It's very hard to pick a highlight today, but Im going to go for the Women's Sprint. It runs throughout the day, and is the continuation of the fierce rivalry between British Golden Girl Vicky Pendleton, and Aussie Anna Meares. Stemming from a coming together in a Keirin race in the 2006 Bordeaux World Championships, Pendleton and Meares have not been the best of friends. In Beijing, Pendleton dominated Meares to take Olympic Gold. But since then, Meares has emerged as the strongest Women's sprinter in the Velodrome - defeating Pendleton in the Semi Finals of the 2011 Worlds to go on to become World Champion and prevent Pendleton taking a 5th consecutive title.
The event starts with a flying lap qualification, similar to the first event of the Omnium. Infact, the Women's Omnium Flying Lap comes directly after the Sprint qualification - so if youve never seen a Flying Lap before today, you'll certainly have seen plenty before the Morning has even ended! The Top 16 Women proceed to the knockout stages, and are also seeded based on their times. Fastest qualifier rides against 16th qualifier, and you can figure out the rest. The seeding lasts for the entire competition, so in the 1/4 finals we see Q1 or Q16 vs Q8 or Q9.
The Sprint is an event of tactics. From a standing start, it lasts 3 laps - but it is by no means flat out, usually only the final lap will be. Its all tactics for the first lap and a half - some riders want to lead out, some don't, and theres maneovring at all sorts of speed (or even at a standstill!) as they try to gain an advantage on their rival, and most importantly, get the jump on them to catch them out. In the 1/8 finals, there is just 1 round. The winner goes through, the loser goes into the B competition. From the 1/4 finals onwards the competition works as a best of 3 - the first to win 2 rounds goes through, with the 3rd round only being used if it is 1-1 after 2 rounds.
Meares and Pendleton may be the big names, but who knows what level their form will be at this stage of the season. Simon Krupeckaite (Lithuania) and Shang Guo (China) are the most obvious next threats as the only other medallists in recent World Championships, while Olga Panarina (Belarus) made the Semi Finals at the 2011 Worlds. Krupeckaite is the World Cup leader, while Guo won her only round of the World Cup in Beijing. Pendleton hasnt ridden the World Cup yet this season, but Meares has - and was surprisingly beaten in the Astana Final by Ljubov Shulika (Ukraine). Kristina Vogel (Germany) won the Cali round. Jess Varnish will also ride the Sprint. She was 12th at the Astana World Cup, and 11th at last year's World Championships.
British Gold Chance: Men's Keirin
Keirin, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.
A bit of an odd event, the Keirin. After all, despite being a bike race. it features a motor-powered bike (called a Derny)! Its also the only race to featurer a starter's gun, and the most likely event for crashes. It last s 8 laps, and for roughly the first 5, the derny leads the way, slowly increasing the pace. The 6 riders behind will battle for their preferred position, but cannot pass the motorbike. The motorbike then pulls off, and the riders are free to race. Tactics differ. Chris Hoy famously likes to lead from the front, and usually nobody can pass him. But you have to be strong to leadout, and others prefer to come from behind instead. In a race with Chris Hoy, the best tactic for the competition is often to fight for his wheel, then see if you can hold that wheel and try to pass him at the finish.
Round 1 sees 6 heats of 6 riders. Only the winner goes through - the rest enter the Repechages. There are 6 Repechages heats and again, only winning is enough. This leaves 12 riders and in the 2 semi finals, the top 3 in each then proceed to the final, to fight for Gold. Shane Perkins (Australia) pipped Chris Hoy to become World Champion last year, while Maximillian Levy (Germany) was 2009 World Champion when Hoy was out injured. Francois Pervis (France) is the World Cup leader but not riding here. Mickael Bourgoin may instead ride for France. Hoy has only raced the Astana World Cup, where he was beaten to 2nd by Christos Volikakis (Greece). The European champion is Matt Crampton and while Hoy is favourite to ride the Keirin at the Olympics, this event is Crampton's best chance to ride the Olympics, and he will really be focusing on this - not being part of the Team Sprint. Teun Mulder (Netherlands) is another consistent threat in the event.
Keirin, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.
My personal favourite Keirin rider though, is Azizulhasni Awang (Malaysia - but riding for YSD Track Team here). In both the Keirin and the Sprint, his trademark is to cross the line with a wheelie. He sensationally won the Commonwealth Games title, finding his way through a gap that was barely there. But he was harshly disqualified for it, the title instead going to Josiah Ng (Also Malaysia). Big competition between the 2 is expected, with only 1 spot on offer for the Olympics, their most recent battle was last Sunday at the Asian championships - Ng won. Last year, Awang had the misfortune of a splinter through his leg at the Manchester World Cup in the Final, as the whole field - except the winner Hoy - crashed on the final lap. He is back though, and I cant wait to watch him.
Olympic Events: Men's and Women's Omnium
The Women's Omnium starts today, with the Qualification, Flying Lap, Points Race and Elimination Race. These events were described in the Day 2 preview (where I also described the Men's contenders) - although the Women ride a shorter Points Race, 80 laps rather than 120. The Men's Omnium meanwhile, comes to a conclusion with the Individual Pursuit, Scratch Race and Time Trial. Having only ever seen the first 3 events of a Men's Omnium, Im looking forward to watching the Women's Omnium today, as well as the final 3 events of the Men's race.
Ben Swift, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.
The Individual Pursuit is raced over the full Olympic distance - 4km (16 laps) for the Men, 3km (12 laps) for the Women. They will race two at a time, one starting on each straight. In a standalone Pursuit, the objective would either be set the fastest time, or catch the opponent. Here it is all about the time, so while we may see some riders catching others, they all still have to ride to the finish as fast as they can. This is the only event in the first session for the Men's Omnium.
The 5th leg of the Omnium for the Men is a 60km Scratch Race. Theres a strong chance of one or more riders being able to gain a lap, which will hugely benefit them in the Omnium overall standings, but otherwise, it is all about the positions on the final lap. Then the final event is the Time Trial and for the Men, this is a Kilometre TT. Again riding two at a time, the rider start in reverse order of their overall Omnium standings, so the last two to ride will be the leading riders in the competition - a nailbiting conclusion.
The only event after the Mens Omnium Kilometre on the day is the Womens Omnium Elimination Race, by which time we should have a good idea of the strongest Women in the competition. The World Championship medallists are all here: Tara Whitten (Canada), Sarah Hammer (USA) and Kirsten Wild (Netherlands) - in order of Gold, Silver and Bronze. Whitten also won the 2010 Worlds, and is favourite for the event, but it is still close. Leire Olaberria (Spain) was 3rd that year, while Britain's Lizzie Armistead took Silver. She has moved on from Track Cycling, so riding for Great Britain is Laura Trott. She is the European champion - where she beat Wild and Olaberria, and took 3rd in the Cali World Cup - only just behind Whitten, while Hammer was the strong winner there. Trott knows that she needs to ride well - Dani King was 2nd in the Astana Omnium, so there is plenty of competition amongst the British team.
Whitten, Hammer, Trott and Olaberria have only ridden the Cali World Cup. Not riding there was Eugeniya Romanyuta, the World Cup leader, and she is the World Cup leader because she won the Omniums in Astana and Beijing. London looks set to mark the showdown between her and the other leading contenders. With a 2nd, 3rd and 5th to her name so far in the World Cups, Li Huang (China) is also a threat, while Malgorata Wojtrya (Poland) was 3rd in Beijing. Also look out for Ausrine Trebaite (Lithuania) who has ridden every round with a best of 4th in Cali, helping her to 4th in the World Cup standings (Consistency helps with the World Cup, as Ive already said!). As things stand, Lithuania are not qualified for the Olympics. Only 8 European riders are allowed, and Lithuania are currently ranked as the 9th best European team, just behind France. Pascale Jeuland (France) will be her competition here.
Lizzie Armitstead, a photo by Sum_of_Marc on Flickr.
Not in the Olympics: Women's Individual Pursuit
Also taking place today is a standalone Women's Individual Pursuit of 3km (12 laps). Britain took Gold and Silver in this event at the Olympics, but this was one of the events that lost out in the schedule changes. This event will feature riders who have already raced in the Team Pursuit, but are not versatile enough to compete in the Omnium.
This may include the World Cup leader Alison Shanks (New Zealand) who won the only Individual Pursuit in the World Cup so far, in Cali. She beat Britain's Wendy Houvenaghel there, but VeloUk reckons that Joanna Rowsell will be riding for Great Britain here. Rowsell beat both Houvenaghel and Trott at the 2011 British Championships in this event, with a time that would have won the 2011 World Championships. Sarah Hammer (USA) actually won the Worlds, but as already mentioned, will ride the Omnium at London.
This is likely to be a two horse race between Rowsell and Shanks, with an outsider being World Bronze medallist Vilika Sereikaite (Lithuania) or Lesya Kalitovska (Ukraine) who took 3rd in Cali. The qualifying for this event is the first event of the day on Saturday, and while I aim to see as much as possible, it is fair to say that the qualifying is the most missable event of the day - if not the entire World Cup. So if you have tickets for both sessions on Saturday, arriving at 10am rather than 9am will not see you miss too much!
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