Cycling Ireland’s Lydia Boylan was in action in the Women’s Omnium at the Track Cycling World Cup in Cali, Colombia where she finished sixth overall after a blistering start which saw her win the first event, the Scratch Race. Her result added to a successful start to the third round of the World Cup for the Irish team with Mark Downey taking gold in the Men’s Points Race.
At the halfway mark of the newly structured Women’s Omnium, which consists of four events raced in one day, Boylan was lying 2nd, ahead of top riders like Sarah Hammer, Olympic Silver Medallist. In the third event, the Elimination, she finished in 13th place and took 6th in the Points Race to finish 6th overall.
Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) took gold with silver going to Emily Nelson (Great Britain) and Rachele Barbieri (Italy) winning the bronze medal.
An upbeat Boylan was happy with her progress, with her current 6th position in the World Cup rankings being enough to qualify her for the World Championships in this event:
“Today was all about getting experience in the Omnium, and guaranteeing World’s qualification. David [Muntaner – coach] and I worked well together to figure out the best tactics. It worked really well for the first two events. I wasn’t expecting to win the Scratch Race! A well timed attack saw me take a lap on the field. This definitely gives me a lot of confidence moving forward. The Elimination Race is definitely still a big weakness but David and I will definitely work hard to improve this before the Worlds.”
In action today are Eoin Mullen in the Men’s Keirin and Lydia Gurley in the Women’s 10km Scratch Race. Competition started on Friday 17th February and continues to Sunday 19th February 2017.
Great result Lydia Boylan. Well done.