Result: Herne Hill Spring Omnium 2 2014

After what seemed like a long winter I signed up for my first race of the season.

Herne Hill hold a couple of Spring Omnium’s and I made it out to the second one this year. With the sun shining and a blue sky it was a perfect day to be outside on the track. There was a fairly large field of ‘B’ riders to contend with and being my first omnium and first race at Herne Hill I was fairly anxious to get on the track.

First up was a 10-lap scratch, which I managed a 5th after being poorly placed in the last lap. That’s a good start!

After the usual wait for the next event was the 2 lap Dash. I crossed the line 4th just missing out a ride in the Dash Final later on.

Next up was the Devil, which I was really looking forward to. With such a large field two riders would be called out each lap. The first few laps I tucked myself into the middle of the bunch but as I found myself boxed in I decided to try and ride from the back & come over the top of the group each lap. The tactic paid off, on the bell lap I found myself on the front with a small gap! However, after so many sprints my legs were shot and the three riders left in the race came around me. That was fun and I managed 4th!

A 9 lap Points race followed, I picked up two or three points which I was very happy with as I have never done terribly well in this event.

The last event was a 20k scratch race for all the senior riders, which didn’t count toward the omnium. This is always a hard one with very high pace near the end. Three ‘B’ riders were left when I was dropped with about 20 laps remaining. A group of eight finished with a half lap advantage over the bunch. It was a really exciting race to watch.

Prizes were given to the top three riders in each category and the 20k. A very well organized day of racing, I had loads of fun and picked up my first BC points and 5th place overall.

Result!
Tom Zittel