It rained medals for Great Britain in Ballerup Super Arena at the 2024 Tissot UCI Track World Championships. Emma Finucane defended her individual sprint world title and Jess Roberts won a silver medal in the omnium to open a weekend of glittering success for the squad.
Women’s sprint
The day started with the semi-finals where Emma Finucane came up against Mina Sato (Japan), but raced clear past her rival in the first round to take the win. Fending Sato off on the home straight in the second race, Finucane made it 2-0, sending her straight through to the gold medal final.
Up against Hetty van de Wouw, who had ridden an impressive event to that point, Finucane seemed to breeze through each ride, growing in confidence throughout the final and taking the first win. The second race saw Finucane come out all guns blazing, clearly with no plans to give away her rainbow stripes. Using the height of the track, Finucane put down an incredible pace, leaving van de Wouw in her wake. Finucane closed the night in a blaze of glory to take the gold medal and back-to-back world titles; becoming the first British woman to do so since Victoria Pendleton in 2010.
Meanwhile, in Capewell’s semi-final, she played a game of patience against van de Wouw, taking the first win. However, two strong rides from van de Wouw saw Capewell head into the bronze medal race with a 1-2 finish.
Against Sato, Capewell delivered good rides against a strong opponent, but unfortunately did not have the legs and was beaten to the bronze medal by Sato in two straight rides.
Shortly after defending her sprint title, a delighted Finucane said: “The first one (world title) you don’t expect it almost, I was a bit of an underdog, and no one really knew me. People knew my name, but I was mid field, whereas now I have raced in the rainbow jersey all year, I have dealt with the expectation and the pressure. It was hard today, but I am really happy that I overcame a lot today and conducted and composed myself on the track. Every ride was different, it was fast, I’m really proud!”
“I felt really confident on this track. I knew my strengths. Scott has been amazing with my confidence. Off the back of the Olympics, I was exhausted, those two events in the seven-day period were enormous for me. And then to come back here and reset is really hard. I knew what I needed to do on the track, and I executed every round. I’m just so proud of who I am and where my career is going.”
Women’s omnium
Having won the team pursuit world title the previous evening, Jess Roberts followed up with an impressive silver medal in the omnium after four impressive rides.
Scratch – In a congested scratch race with an open field, Roberts stayed well positioned throughout, maintaining energy and sitting comfortably in the bunch, keeping the pace. With three laps to go, Roberts made her move and powered off the front on the black line. Roberts held off the field until half a lap to go before finding herself boxed in at the bottom unable to maintain the lead and finishing seventh; a good start to the day.
Tempo – The tempo race started slowly with not a huge amount of action from the bunch, as Ally Wollaston quietly and consistently racked up lap points to be ahead with eight points. With 10 laps to go, the race had split considerably with two groups of three off the front behind Wollaston who had edged to half a lap ahead of the bunch.
With seven laps to go, Roberts made her move in a bid to catch Wollaston and was joined by Tsuyaka Uchino (Japan) and Anita Yvonne Stenberg (Norway). The trio managed to bridge the gap and pull Wollaston in to make a group of four.
In the remaining laps, the four worked smartly and eventually managed to take a lap and 20 points, pushing Roberts up the leaderboard into third place. This left her fourth place overall with 64 points after two events.
Elimination – Roberts rode an impressive elimination race, boldly positioning herself at the front for the majority of the race. A crash between Alexandra Manly (Aus) and Victoire Berteau (France) midway through saw the race neutralised. Once both riders were back in the race, Roberts assumed her favoured position at the front of the bunch, staying safe as more riders were eliminated.
As the bunch got smaller and more open, Roberts had to work harder to maintain the pace and keep out of trouble, but was ultimately eliminated to finish in seventh place.
Points – Roberts headed into the final points race in fifth position with 92 points. After a muted start with Wollaston, Stenberg, Dideriksen marking each other, Wollaston and Stenberg both earned points in sprint one, with Roberts comfortable in fifth. Roberts continued to steadily add sprint points to her total, before trying to get off the front with Dideriksen, but neither rider was able to make a move stick.
With 45 laps to go, Roberts committed to a lap gain, pushing hard and giving it everything to catapult her into first position. Tactically, Roberts held off joining the group in line with the upcoming sprint, to take a bonus five points.
Comfortably back in the bunch and heavily marked, Roberts attempted to chase down Dideriksen’s attack at 28 laps to go. With no one else supporting the chase, Roberts let her go and dropped to the back of the chase group of favourites.
In the sixth sprint, Wollaston took five more points, putting her just one point behind Roberts in first, with Stenberg on 109 in third. With 15 laps to go, Roberts kept her eyes on Wollaston coming into the penultimate sprint, following her to take a point to Wollaston’s three, confirming them and Stenberg for the podium.
In a cagey final few laps, Roberts stayed calm, conserving energy for the final sprint before her foot came out of her pedal, leaving her to fall to the back of the pack with just three laps to go. Unable to contest the final sprint, but with enough points to stay on the podium, Roberts took an impressive silver medal after a fantastic day of racing.
Roberts said of her silver win: “I am really happy, but I am also really annoyed. [In the points race] My foot came out and I couldn’t get it back in. I just bumped into her with three laps to go so I lost my positioning, but I am still really happy.
“We had a plan coming in to be top eight and be consistently top six in each race. I seemed to have some legs left, so I committed so hard, but I had to dig so deep. I honestly did not expect silver, I was just racing that race. Luckily I held on!”
