It was once her achilles heel, but Laura Trott is beginning to prove a point. The 22-year-old is a double Olympic champion, winning gold at London 2012 in the team pursuit and the six-discipline omnium, but the points race has consistently proved to be a problem.
The discipline, which features sprints every 10 laps to accumulate points, should suit Trott’s characteristics, but she has had to work on her tactical awareness with the British Cycling endurance coach Chris Newton, an Olympic bronze medallist in the event in 2008.
With no omnium at Glasgow 2014, Trott’s individual focus fell on the points race and she emerged with Commonwealth Games gold.
“I was a bit worried about it,” Trott said. “You want to win a Commonwealth Games medal and I was a bit nervous. I really wanted a medal and I’d chosen my weakest event to try to achieve it in. I was super happy it all paid off in the end. After winning the Commonwealth Games it gave me a lot confidence that I could perform on the international stage. I’d always been pretty good, winning nationals or whatever, but when it came to a World Cup or the world championships, it’s always been the one [discipline] which has let me down.”
The points race is even more important now after the UCI, cycling’s world governing body, reshuffled the order of the omnium disciplines. Instead of aiming to collect the fewest points and finishing with the 500m time trial – a strong event for Trott – the new target is now to collect the most points. Forty points are on offer for the winner of each of the first five disciplines and the riders add to their totals in the concluding points race. It could lead to rivals watching each other, but, theoretically, the whole field could win.
Trott, who won the European title in Guadeloupe in the revised format, added: “All the events are still just as important. If you go into the points race winning all you have to do is follow. It could mean the points race is a bit neutralised, [but] it will be interesting to see how it pans out.”
Trott returns to the Olympic velodrome in London this weekend to ride in the Revolution Series in an omnium against Marianne Vos, the Dutch multi-discipline world champion and Olympic road race gold medallist.
Vos also won Olympic gold in the points race in Beijing in 2008, the last time it was staged before the omnium was introduced for London 2012.
Trott added: “I love going back to the London track. It just brings back happy memories for me. I’d like to think I’d have the edge, considering I am the Olympic champion in the omnium. She’s Olympic points race champion. I don’t know what she’s like at a flying lap, or a 500m or even an IP (individual pursuit). I’ve never really seen any times of hers, I just know she’s really good at the bunch races.”
The British rider has had a duel track-road focus in the last two years while riding for Wiggle-Honda, but for 2015 she has switched to the British Matrix Fitness-Vulpine squad, with the velodrome the main goal.
“I want to knuckle down now and concentrate fully on track and know I’m giving 100% to that,” she said. “I may well want to concentrate on the road after [the Rio 2016 Olympics]. For now track is where my heart lies. It’s easy to decide that because that’s where I’ve always had my success.”
