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Omnium finish at the London track world championships ‘bittersweet’ for Allison Beveridge

Wrapping up the Canadian participation at this week's track cycling world championships, Allison Beveridge rounded out a successful week of racing with fourth in the Omnium.

by Kevin Mackinnon

Photo credit: Kevin Mackinnon
Photo credit: Kevin Mackinnon

Despite a rough first day, Allison Beveridge rallied on day two of the Omnium to finish fourth.

Wrapping up the Canadian participation at this week’s track cycling world championships, Allison Beveridge rounded out a successful week of racing for the Canadian women with a fourth-place finish in what turned out to be a very competitive and exciting women’s Omnium race. (The British fans were thrilled to have their very own Laura Trott take the title.)

“It’s a little bittersweet again – I know I used that word after the team pursuit, but I’m pretty disappointed with my first day,” Beveridge said in an interview after the points race. “It was pretty rough. Sometimes you’re at your physical limit and that’s all you have, but yesterday it was some tactical errors that I made that cost me a lot of points.

“[In] the scratch race, I just went to the front too early and got rolled too much. That was an unfortunate error. [In] the individual pursuit I went out like it was a team pursuit. I just loaded myself way too early. The power was there, but the way I executed it was not, so I lost some time there. And then in the elimination I felt good, but you make one error and you’re out. I was feeling good and in there and then that was it with 10 to go. I’m pretty disappointed with that, but I had to come back today.”

Photo credit: Kevin Mackinnon
Photo credit: Kevin Mackinnon

This morning Beveridge managed to rally with a fifth place finish in the time trial, then took the flying lap event. In the points race she managed to take a lap and win one of the sprints to move herself up through the rankings.

“I had two of my stronger timed events this morning—those ones are easy, go as fast as you can,” she said. “For the points race it was just go out and race and make the most of it.”

“I kind of knew that medals were out of the picture for me part way through, but I just wanted to gain a lap and take a couple of sprints and make some big moves. I didn’t want to overextend myself.”

As “bittersweet” as the week has been, Beveridge takes a lot from the experience at the worlds this week.

“It was a good lesson, the first day. I know what not to do in a few of the races, and I take some confidence away from my flying lap. I think I can get my 500 down a bit. The points race is a good test. And the team pursuit it’s a stepping stone. I know if we tighten some things up we can make some big improvements.”