Jennifer Valente (Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY24) scored an extra superlative when she won her first world title in the women’s Omnium on Friday at the UCI Track World Championships in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France. A multiple gold winner in the Team Pursuit for the United States, the Omnium victory was her first individual elite world title at Worlds, and she became one of the few riders to double up with a World crown while still the reigning Olympic Champion.
“Winning this event was certainly a goal, well before the Olympics. I achieved the Olympic dream before this one, but this really had been on the forefront of my mind for a long time. I’m really pleased with this win,” Valente said in a USA Cycling statement just after her win.
“It definitely means a lot. The team gold medal is special in a completely different way. Every team world title that I’ve won has been with a really special group of people. But this is just a completely different experience.”
Valente earned spots in two Olympic Games, earning three medals for Team USA, one in each colour. She took silver in the Team Pursuit in Rio and bronze in the same event in Tokyo, and scored the gold medal in Tokyo in the Omnium.
The 27-year-old California native shares four Team Pursuit world titles with her US teammates, but entered the World Championships without an individual elite-level gold medal in a storied track career that began with a gold in the Scratch race at the 2011 Junior World Championships.
She has top placings in the Omnium from the Pan American Track Championships and US Nationals and World Cups, but a rainbow jersey was elusive until this week.
In the first of the four endurance events of the Omnium on the Saint Quentin en Yvelines velodrome, Valente took the win in the Scratch Race, having been patient until five laps remained. In the second event, the Tempo Race, she finished sixth, as a group of five riders were able to gain a lap on the field near the end of the event. However, Valente came back and won the Elimination race, an event in which she earned a bronze medal on Thursday.
It came down to tactics in the final event, the Points race. She marked her closest competitor, eventual silver medalist Maike van der Duin (Netherlands), as each scored a sprint each and held on to a nine-point margin for the gold.
When asked about the format of the Omnium, Valente said it was a challenge because it rewards an all-round performance.
“People have good races and bad races, and you just have to be consistent. The most consistent rider is the one that wins. Sometimes that means winning individual events. Sometimes it doesn’t,” she said.
“There’s no cruising in this race. There was a lot of tough competition. A lot of up-and-coming young riders. A lot of people ready to really dig deep and go hard, to put their name on the board, to be a favorite at the next race.”
Valente remains a favourite in any event on the track. She took home a total of three medals from France, the best for any of the US riders. The third medal was a bronze in the 100-lap Points race, which increased her tally in that event to 17 in her career.
“That race was tough. It’s the end of the week, and everyone is trying for one last chance at the podium,” said Valente about the race. "The point spread was incredibly tight for most of the race, with 10 points separating first to ninth, I think. I’m happy to end this event with another medal.”
