UCI Track Nations Cup: Gold for Ollie Wood!

It was a golden night for Ollie Wood as he took gold in the omnium on the final day of the UCI Track Nations Cup to seal a brilliant weekend for the Great Britain Cycling Team in Glasgow.

UCI Track Nations Cup: Gold for Ollie Wood!
British Cycling Press Release

It was a golden night for Ollie Wood as he took gold in the omnium on the final day of the UCI Track Nations Cup to seal a brilliant weekend for the Great Britain Cycling Team in Glasgow.

Men’s omnium
Riding for Team Inspired, Wood shone across all four omnium events to deliver Great Britain’s first gold medal on the final event of the weekend.

Wood took the overall win with 145 points – 11 points ahead of the field – while Will Perrett (Spellman Dublin Port Track Team) came fifth, just six points off third. Olympic champion Matt Walls finished 13th, coming straight from a busy period of racing on the road, and Rhys Britton came in 23rd riding for Team Wales.

Wood took the lead in the first round of the event with a comfortable win in the scratch race and continued to showcase his strength with a third place in the tempo race, where he was followed by Perrett in fourth.

A sixth place in the elimination set Wood up perfectly for a podium position going into the final race, and a powerful display in the points race gave him the golden ticket to the top step of the podium after gaining a lap on the field.

Wood said: “It’s pretty good to win gold. You don’t get many chances to race in front of a home crowd so it’s nice to win gold anyway, and even nicer in front of a home crowd.

“I got off to a good start and it’s been very quickfire, all within a few hours, so it’s made it tough but that’s the omnium. You have to keep getting up there and see where you are for the points race at the end.
“I think Katie [Archibald] deserved it yesterday – it was a really unfortunate crash. But it’s great to get a gold for the team.”

Women’s keirin
Sophie Capewell and Emma Finucane (Team Wales) performed strongly against tough competition in the women’s keirin with top 10 finishes.

The first round saw Finucane finish second in her heat, just behind Olympic sprint champion Kelsey Mitchell, while Great Britain’s Capewell finished fourth, seeing both move into the repechages.

Capewell took the win on a photo finish over Hetty van der Wouw to make it to the second round alongside Finucane, where both riders were just edged out in their respective heats.

The two British riders went into the 7-12th place final with Capewell taking 10th and Finucane finishing 12th, while Mathilde Gros of France was crowned the overall winner of the event.

Women’s Madison
Great Britain’s Dame Laura Kenny and Maddie Leech’s Madison heroics were cut short after multiple crashes meant they were forced to abandon. The Team Breeze duo had a brilliant start, gaining nine points after six sprint rounds to put them in third, however Leech suffered a fall after a touch of wheels at the halfway point and the race was neutralised before she courageously got back in the mix.

Shortly afterwards, another crash took Kenny down by the finish line and in the same minute, Leech went down for a second time in the home straight, leaving the pair unable to finish, but both were able to walk off to the applause of the crowd.

The race was eventually won by French pair Marrion Borras and Valentine Fortin with 33 points, to match the men’s victory yesterday.

Men’s sprint
Jack Carlin just missed out on challenging for a medal in the men’s sprint after a photo finish in the quarter finals left him empty handed. Carlin qualified third in the flying 200m with a time of 9.609 to make it straight through to the 1/8 finals, while teammate Joe Truman qualified 14th and Team Inspired rider Hamish Turnbull went through in 12th place.

Turnbull was knocked out by Sam Ligtlee of the Netherlands, but Truman beat Polish rider Daniel Rochna to make it to the 1/8 finals where he then faced Carlin. Carlin took the win to enter the quarter finals where he met Australian rider Matthew Richardson in a best of three contest. Richardson took the first win with a tactical sweep under Carlin with two laps to go, before Carlin took the second comfortably to set up a decider. That sprint ended in a photo finish, with the win being awarded to Richardson and ending the Scotsman’s hopes.

World champion Harrie Lavreysen took the overall victory after beating Richardson in straight rounds in the final.