United States’ rider, Jennifer Valente has just claimed an incredible victory at the Women’s UCI Cycling World Cup Omnium in Manchester soon after taking silver a week ago in Poland.
Valente, 22, fought hard to keep the position against Great Britain’s world champion, Katie Archibald giving us a nail-biting final stage of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Manchester coming out on top winning 5 points more than Archibald (139 and 134 respectively), while Denmark’s rider, Amalie Dideriksen settled for bronze.
“It’s an incredible result and it certainly exceeded by my expectations,” Valente said, winner of both national and international medals.
“I looked at how I was riding each race over the last two weekends, and tried to take as much information as possible from each situation. Going home with silver and a gold is really incredible.”
Go out fast and commit ?@ValenteJennifer gets off to a flyer in the omnium scratch race #TrackWorldCup pic.twitter.com/SIsyM9YbIj
— Track World Cup (@TrackWorldCup) November 10, 2017
A total confidence booster
What grew Valente’s confidence was the silver medal she received in Poland earlier this month. That victory seemed to significantly boost her overall attitude winning the first two races in the Omnium in London; both the scratch race and the tempo race.
However, Archibald beat American in the elimination race taking the first sprint right before Valente responding with a round of her own. Even though Archibald won the two next sprints, this didn’t stop Valente to fight hard for the gold picking off four points in the final sprint to seal the overall victory.
“I had a pretty good scratch and tempo but it was going back and forth. I had a bit of a lead but then it came down. Every sprint counted and we were fighting it out. That it came down the last event, right at the end, that’s so exciting for the fans. It’s a little bit nerve racking for the riders and you’re using every last ounce that you have. I really only knew I’d won about half a lap after the final sprint,” she added.
“It’s incredible to race in the UK. The fans are intelligent and they’re motivated to cheer. Obviously they’re cheering for Katie and she has the world champion stripes, but it makes for hard racing but good racing all around.”
Valente was also part of the women’s team pursuit squad that took silver at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
“It’s a little bit of a turning point, having done so much team pursuit in the last couple of years. But I’m excited to see how it goes looking forward. The Olympics are always the long term goal, and I have great teammates in the pursuit and that’s still a priority,” she added.
