News: Jon Dibben – World Champion!

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Jon Dibben who won Silver in the Team Pursuit, went one better in the Points race with victory after a sensational edge of the seat race

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News: Jon Dibben – World Champion!
Photos by PhotoSport International. uk usa asia.

A rider who was helped along the way by Hargroves Cycles for many years as a junior, Jon Dibben, is World Champion!

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The 22-year-old pulled on the rainbow stripes for the first time in his career after a thrilling points race – sealing victory by taking the final sprint.

Cheered on by the home crowd, Dibben took a lap early on along with others and kept himself in the medal hunt for the rest of the race. With three sprints remaining, his race for the Gold was under threat from Austrian Andreas Graf, Belgian Kenny de Ketele and Frenchman Benjamin Thomas.

But the rider who was just sensational in the winter at the Revolution series, wasn’t paying any heed to the challenge. Jon won the 15th and 16th sprints as the roof was being lifted off the velodrome by the noise from the crowd getting right behind the British rider.

The race could not have been closer between Dibben and defending champion, Andreas Graf. The Southampton rider was only two points behind the race leader before the final sprint before Jon stamped on the pedals, hard, and caught Frenchman Benjamin Thomas who was out front. Dibben went on to take maximum points at the finish line whilst Graf did enough to bring himself level with Dibben. The bad news for Graf was that the British rider won on countback.

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Jon told Sky Sports “It feels unbelievable. Wearing the rainbow jersey is massive. I knew what I had to do 14 or 15 laps out. The Austrian was on my wheel and I knew I had to beat him. I didn’t think about anything else. I was pretty confident in my sprint and I just had to hold my nerve.”

“In the last 30 laps, I was just waiting for sprints and in the last six or seven laps, I was just trying to gulp in the air, and the crowd gave me a bit of a boost. Any medal would have been a massive result, so to get the gold medal and the World Champion’s jersey is amazing.”

His best friend who he has shared a house with for many years as part of the GB Academy and also Team Wiggins, Owain Doull, no less of a star himself, was over the moon saying

 

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What is quite telling is that Jon was hoping to do the Omnium for which he has had success in during the winter; thanks to his ability in the Points race. In an interview with VeloUK in the winter he said “I have got a lot of confidence from the Points races I’ve done and learning how the Omnium works. As long as you go into the Points race within touching distance, you can do all the damage you need to do there”.

For London 2016, there were three riders in line for the Omnium, Jon, Chris Latham and a certain Mark Cavendish. The latter was given the ride at the World Championships and after day 1, sits in sixth place after two rounds where he has been placed well back and ironically, a second in the one event that Jon has found to be his ‘bogey’ race, the Devil take the hindmost or Elimination race.

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The ride by Jon winning the Points race though puts pressure on Cavendish to deliver if he wants to deny Jon a spot in the event in Rio. It may well be the team decide to use Jon in the Team Pursuit instead of the Omnium at Rio.

All conjecture right now but Jon told Will Fotheringham of the Guardian “It certainly doesn’t do [my chances] any harm (riding the Omnium at Rio); the Points is the main event. We’ll see how Cav goes. I’ll keep progressing like I am.”

Would he take the Omnium place if offered it by the team in Rio? “Massively, of course. Team Pursuit is the main goal, to get into there for Rio. And then if the omnium is there, you’ve got a day off, and then two days.”

Congratulations to Jon, a well deserved reward for all the hard work. We’re very proud of you!

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