Track: Rachel James wins Welwyn Omnium

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Location: Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire
Event 2 June 2012
Report: Peter Waghorn


The Women’s Omnium at Welwyn was a close fought event with the overall result going down to the final event the 500m time trial with three riders within a point of each other.

In the opening scratch race, Caroline Harding (VC St Raphael) went way in the opening laps and soon established a half lap lead.

Kiera McVitty (Buzz Cycles) and Lauren Quenby (Newcastle RC) also left the main bunch and at the line these three took the top places.

The four lap pursuit was won by Lydia Boylan (Derby Mercury) from Janet Birkmyre (TORQ) and Adel Tyson Boor (VC St Raphael) with Caroline Harding fourth and still leading the event overall.

In the points race, Rachel James (Abergavenny RC) was in aggressive mode. She was in the top four places each scoring lap and easily won this event.

After three events, the overall standings was Lydia Boylan 10 points, Janet Birkmyre and Rachel James tied on 11 points with Caroline Harding on 16 points – these four riders lined up for the sprint.

Rachel James won from Lydia Boylan and Janet Birkmyre so as they went into the final 500m time trial it was still all to play for.

Rachel James put in a tremendous effort to win this event by more than a second and so took the meeting overall. A good competitive day of racing for the seventeen riders.

The Dernyfest was run off with three heats to determine the line up for the final and minor final events.

Winners of the heats were Kristian Woolf (Prestige), Matt Gittings (AW Cycles) and John McClelland (Prestige).

The nine rider minor final was an interesting race with plenty of place changing as they entered the final stages.

With two laps to go, local pair George Farrell paced by his father Dave attacked and held on for a well deserved victory. Second and third places went to Davd Langlands (Fenland Clarion) and James Notley (Planet X)

In the 10 rider final over 50 laps, Matt Gittings (AW Cycles) paced by George Gilbert set off at a furious pace and lapped the field by half distance and went on to lap the field twice more for a famous victory.

A four rider battle for the minor places was fought out between Alex Wise (VC St Raphael), John McClelland (Prestige), Mark Smith (Welwyn) and Kristian Woolf (Prestige).

Mark Smith opened a slight gap with around 15 to go but a mechanical fault with his Derny developed.

At the finish second place went to Kristian Woolf, third to Mark Smith followed by John McClelland, and Alex Wise

Results:

1 Rachel James (Abergavenny RC) 13
2 Janet Birkmyre (TORQ) 15
3 Lyia Boylan (Look Mum no Hands) 18
4 Rosie Blount (Derby Mercury) 29
5 Emma Baird (City of Edinburgh RC) 34
6 Adel Tyson-Bloor (VC St Raphael) 36
7 Caroline Harding (VC St Raphael) 36
8 Hannah Blount (Derby Mercury) 38
9 Lauren Quenby (Newcastle RC) 47
10 Kiera McVitty (Buzz Cycles) 52


British Cycling would like to thank the organising team, officials and everyone else who helped promote this event. Our sport could not exist without the hundreds of people, many of them unpaid volunteers, who put in many hours of hard work running events, activities and clubs.