Tuesday 2 December 2014 18:36, UK
Olympic champion Laura Trott says she is much more suited to the new format of the omnium race ahead of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in London.
The new rules of the race discipline mean riders will now compete for the highest points tally, as opposed to the fewest.
The winner of each of the first five events - the scratch race, individual pursuit, elimination race, time trial and flying lap - receives 40 points, with the rider in second receiving 38 points, third place 36 points and so on.
The points gained from these events will be added together for the riders to start with on the final event - the points race - and they will add to their total from thereon to determine the final positions.
“I like it, to be honest,” said Trott, a world champion in the event in 2012.
“It means you have to just follow the main contenders (in the points race). It’s basically a handicapped points race because you go into them staggered. So you know precisely how many points you have on everyone else and how much you need to win.
“I think they were trying to get it so people who weren’t good at timed events would still be up there and still score the points.
“It just hasn’t opened up that much and you’ve just got the top four people just watching each other, like what used to happen in the scratch race.”
Trott sees the discipline as her second best asset on the track, despite riding to gold in the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, European and world championships in recent years.
She debuted in the newly-updated format in a high-profile event at the 2014 UEC European Track Championships in October, retaining her title in the process.
She left it late to edge past Belgian Jolien D’Hoore in the points race in Guadeloupe and the 22-year-old feels she is more suited to the new rules.
“It’s better for me because it is cagier,” Trott said.
“For it to be like that, it’s easier for me. I’ll get better but it just means now I know what I have to do rather than going in with a completely open mind and having no idea what’s going to happen.”
Trott goes into the second world cup of three in good form, after riding to titles in the Commonwealths, British and European track championships, as well as the team pursuit at the opening world cup in Guadalajara, Mexico, last month.
“The Europeans went surprisingly well because it was an outdoor track and I thought I might suffer a bit,” Trott said.
“I did suffer in the team pursuit but it’s because I’m not that kind of athlete, I’m a lot more speed-based.
“Being small, when it went to an outdoor track and on concrete it’s a little bit more strength-based and I was a bit more nervous going over there because I didn’t know how I was going to end up coming out of it.
“I just about got around in the team pursuit, the first one I’ve had to pull out of actually, I didn’t finish it in one of the rides.
“Then onto the omnium - I did much better. It didn’t help that before the team pursuit I ruptured the ligament in my ankle, which wasn’t the best because it meant getting off the start line was much harder than it should have been.”
Trott was rested for the omnium in Guadalajara as Katie Archibald stepped in at the Pan American Velodrome.
“Mexico went really well but I didn’t ride the omnium. It’s the first time since the Olympics that I haven’t doubled up, which was a bit weird actually.
“The way the qualifying for the worlds are, you have to have ridden one. It meant if I rode two, you’d have to hope (I didn’t pick up an injury), because we wouldn’t have an omnium rider, so it made sense to put Katie Archibald in.
“She’s never had experience either on a world level, so she got some experience by doing that.”
