Edmonson takes a second Rainbow Jersey with World Championship Omnium Victory

Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Nettie Edmondson won her second rainbow jersey of the 2015 UCI World Track Championships with a stunning victory in the six-race Omnium event. Having already won the World title with Australia in the Team Pursuit, the 23-year-old Adelaidean took the lead in the two-day competition after three of the six events, then utterly dominated the second day of the competition with victory in all three of the remaining races.

Edmondson’s final total of 192 points was good enough to give her a massive 16-point cushion over former Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling athlete, Olympic Champion Laura Trott of Great Britain, while the Netherlands’ Kirsten Wild was just one point further behind in third place.

Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Belgian Champion Jolien D’hoore narrowly missed out on a Bronze Medal, having sat in a podium position for much of the competition, as she was nudged into fourth place by Wild in the final Points Race.

“I really can’t believe it,” Edmondson told Cycling Australia afterwards. “It is pretty special after the high of the Team Pursuit; this is just a bonus.

“This win is fantastic, but nothing compares to winning [the Team Pursuit] with my teammates,” she added. “I played that over in my head even warming up for this omnium.

“The women’s track endurance squad has been working so hard for the past few years, so to see the success come across the entire board, it is really exciting for all of us. It shows we are heading in the right direction. We are looking forward to the next few years.”

Edmondson’s competition got off to a solid start, with fifth place in the Scratch Race. The Australian won the bunch sprint, but four riders had managed to take a lap on the field during the 10km race. She followed this with second place in the Individual Pursuit, just three hundredths of a second behind Trott, and her combined total of 70 points out a possible 80 gave her the competition lead.

An uncharacteristic seventh place in the Elimination allowed Trott to close to just two points, but Edmondson ended the opening day of the competition in the Gold Medal position.

Day two started in perfect fashion for Edmondson, with her time of 35.064 seconds for the 500 metre time trial good enough for victory. With Trott only managing fifth, and Wild taking just 13th, the gap between the three riders began to widen once more. A Flying Lap time of 14.024 gave the Australian another victory, and meant that she was to have an almost insurmountable lead of 14 points over Trott going into the final Points Race.

Rather than sit back on that cushion, however, Edmondson went on the offensive in the latter stages of the 25km race. Having allowed her rivals to close the gap a little in the early sprints, and for four lowly-placed riders to take a lap shortly afterwards, the Australian Olympic Bronze Medallist was first across the line on sprints seven and eight. This meant that to defeat her, Trott or Wild would have to take a lap on the field; with time running out they had little chance of this, however, and Edmondson was crowned World Champion for the second time.

“I didn’t have to do anything crazy,” Edmondson explained, “and sure enough my three major opponents fought themselves over the first half of the race so I was quite fresh for the second half and I just had to make sure no-one took any laps.”

Result
1. Nettie Edmondson (Australia)
2. Laura Trott (Great Britain)
3. Kirsten Wild (Netherlands)
4. Jolien D’hoore (Belgium)