Consistency leads to gold for Gough

Feb 15th, 10.  The omnium's format means the winner doesn't get the glory of crossing the line with their arms in the air acknowledging a cheering crowd - Westley Gough was that unsung champion.

Gold for Wesley Gough, silver Marc Ryan, bronze, Jason Allen ©RoadCycling.co.nz

The final result isn't known until after the final race and therefore the champion misses out on the usual winners antics.

However, Gough is used to sharing the limelight. In his role in the very successful New Zealand team pursuit squad he has often missed out on top billing.  For example he missed out on being on the podium at the Beijing Olympics, he rode the heats but not the final.

But this wasn't the Olympics or the team pursuit, it was the RaboPlus Elite Track Nationals and Gough was definitely on the podium for the omnium.

Consistency is the key to a good omnium result and Westley Gough proved the best over the five disciplines to win the men's gold medal.

Omnium 1: 1000m time trial 

In the omnium, placings are counted as points, 1 for 1st, 2 for end etc - the objective is to have the lowest number of points at the end of the five events.  

With this points system there is no room for a rider to have one bad event!

The omnium is competed for at the UCI World Championships but not at the Commonwealth Games.

For the first time in Olympic history it will be part of the Games in London 2012 which has created renewed interest in the event.

Gough's big goal of the nationals was to win the overall individual pursuit title (which he did), but he wanted to give the omnium a go too - as did twelve other men.

Omnium 2: Individual pursuit

The track nationals had a new format this year. The omnium riders raced in the individual events and their results compared between just the omnium riders - i.e. a race within a race.  

Omnium riders could also choose to register for the individual event which qualified them to race finals and earn the individual medals too.

With a new format there were bound to be teething problems. Myron Simpson was one of the riders who didn't realise he should also have registered for the individual events, the mistake cost him a silver medal in the kilo event.

However, his time did give him the opening lead after this first omnium event.   Gough had the second best time of the omnium riders and, as he did register for the kilo as well, he also walked away with the silver medal behind Eddie Dawkins in the individual event.

The second race in the omnium was the individual pursuit (IP) where the riders' heat times counted as the omnium IP event.  

Peter Latham had the top time after the heats and took omnium honours, while Gough's time of 4:21.369 was 2nd best.  Gough went on to win the gold medal in the individual event that evening.

"I didn't think about the omnium at all to be honest until after the pursuit qualifying.  After my second in the pursuit qualifying I started thinking about it," Gough told RoadCycling.co.nz.  

Omnium 3: Points race 

After these first two events, Gough was in first place ahead of Myron Simpson and Marc Ryan.

In the same session as his victorious IP final, Gough had the third race of the omnium, the 30km points race.

"I hadn't really thought about the points race either but I managed to score a few points and limit my losses there," said Gough.

Aaron Gate was the only omnium rider in the  group of five who lapped the field and therefore he earned the top omnium position.

After the third event Gough was sharing the omnium lead with Ryan.

Omnium 4: 200m sprint

The fourth event was the 200m sprint, not a favourite race for these two endurance riders.  

In the heats, which counted as the omnium competition, Gough did what he called "a decent 200m" to get the 3rd best time by an omnium competitor ahead of Ryan's 6th.  Cameron Karwowski took top omnium honours.

The fifth and final race of the omnium was the evening's scratch race.  Going into the event Gough had a three point lead on Ryan.

"He was going to try and beat me, he didn't have to beat me by too many places," said Gough about Ryan who ended up the best of the omnium riders with Gough the second.

The race came down to a bunch sprint won by Tom Scully, after Ryan's massive efforts to break free from the pack were unsuccessful.

"I was thinking about my own race as well, but I had to keep him within sight," said Gough.  

"Then it happened to work out well in the end, I got into a pretty good position.  I wasn't strong enough to get up for a medal but fourth [overall] was good enough for the omnium win."

Omnium 5: Scratch race

"It's a bonus to finish off the nationals," said Gough about his second gold medal of the meet.

Gough enjoyed competing in the omnium, but not particularly the format.

"The programme was really hard.  It didn't give you heaps of time to focus on the points race. It made it tough, tough for everyone though so it was an even playing field," he said.

"My heart's in the team pursuit, that's where I want to do well.  It's good to know I can do a good omnium and there's possibly potential there if I'd like to pursue that in the future, but for the moment it's team pursuit."

Men's omnium results

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