Laura Trott (Great Britain) celebrates her omnium world title
Laura Trott (Great Britain) celebrates her Omnium gold medal
Laurie Berthon, Laura Trott and Sarah Hammer on the Omnium podium
Laura Trott gets some last minute words of advice from coach Paul Manning
Laura Trott celebrates her second world title of the championships(Image credit: SWpixcyclingphotos.com)
Laura Trott (Great Britain) doubled her gold medal tally on the final day of competition at the Track World Championships with a calm and composed victory in the omnium. Her last major omnium title came on the same track in 2012 and it is the one that she will be defending at the Olympics in Rio this summer. She adds the gold medal to the one that she claimed in the scratch race and the bronze medal in the team pursuit.
Trott has come close to taking back the omnium title with silver medals in 2013, 2014, and 2015 and the relief at finally finding the gold at the end of the rainbow in such a big year was clear to see.
"I'm just so happy. It's taken me four years to get a gold medal back in the omnium. It was just incredible," Trott said after the podium ceremony, the Union flag still draped around her shoulders.
Trott started the second day of the omnium equal on points with Sarah Hammer (United States). Trott had put in a consistent opening day with top three placings in each of the events, but Hammer claimed victories in the pursuit and the elimination race, which put her top of the standings. Trott has always performed well in the elimination race and losing out to Hammer in one of her favourite events irked her.
"Last night I went to bed, and I didn't really know what was going to happen. I was a little disappointed that I didn't win the elimination race," she said. "I rode stupidly. I should've taken Sarah down to the black line and I didn't. I took her up, and I kept it fast. That is something that she's good at. I couldn't match her.
"(I was) not angry, just disappointed. Elimination race is my thing. I really enjoy that event. I felt like the wind had been blown out of my sails a little bit. I had such a high after Jason [Kenny] won the sprint that I was buzzing and after that, I was 'oh, okay'.
"Today it was a new day, I woke up feeling really positive."
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Trott came out of the traps firing with third place in the time trial and the flying lap, keeping up her consistent record. Hammer couldn't match her over the shorter events, and Trott went into the final competition with a 12-point lead. Knowing that riders could earn 20 points for a lap, Trott set out to extend that, going for several of the early sprints to give herself a more comfortable buffer. From there, it was all about managing her closest rivals.
"I felt so good in that. Paul (Manning, her coach) had said to me before the start 'take out the first points and you'll feel confident, you'll feel comfortable'," she explained. "That's exactly what I did. After that, I could ride my own race. I wasn't really bothered about what was going on with Sarah and Laurie because they were having their own battle."
When a journalist pointed out that this latest victory Trott now had seven world titles to her name she replied. "I love the number seven - I can retire happy now."
Her tally, at the tender age of just 23, is just four short of the number that Chris Hoy took in his career. "I might be able to do four in one go because I could do the omnium, the team pursuit, the points race and the scratch," she joked but, probably, deadly serious.
Born in Ireland to a cycling family and later moved to the Isle of Man, so there was no surprise when I got into the sport. Studied sports journalism at university before going on to do a Masters in sports broadcast. After university I spent three months interning at Eurosport, where I covered the Tour de France. In 2012 I started at Procycling Magazine, before becoming the deputy editor of Procycling Week. I then joined Cyclingnews, in December 2013.
