Rémi Pelletier-Roy’s omnium run at the Pan Am Games

From fourth, to second, to fifth, a personal best in individual pursuit, kilo and flying lap—Rémi Pelletier-Roy fought throughout his omnium run, right through the final points race of the competition.

Pelletier-Roy started the men’s omnium competition strong on Thursday. He finished fourth in the scratch race, ahead of the world omnium champion, Fernando Gaviria Rendon of Colombia. Later, Pelletier-Roy was strong in the 4-km individual pursuit, in which he finished first with a time of 4:25.189. It moved him to second overall in the omnium standings. The day ended with the rider from Longueuil, Que., slipping in the overall standing. The elimination race wasn’t kind to Pelletier-Roy. He was the third of 11 riders to be removed from the field. Gaviria won that event. Pelletier-Roy slipped to fifth overall. “I had a very, very bad elimination. I want to figure out why. I have no answer for now,” he said.

On Friday, Pelletier-Roy came in third in the 1K TT with 1:04.910. With the 250 m flying lap, he set the fastest time of the day, 13.480. It was topped, however, by Gaviria (13.433), who moved further up the standings. “Finishing third in the time trial and second in the flying lap this morning makes up for last night,” Pelletier-Roy said. “I am pretty happy because in the three individual events, I posted three pb’s.”

Pelletier-Roy entered the final competition of the omnium, the points race, 12 points back of the first-place Gaviria, who had 184 points. But Pelletier-Roy was only two points away from second place.

“The points race is one of my favourites,” Pelletier-Roy said ahead of the event. “It is really hard and technical, but with only 11 guys in the field, it almost makes the other events irrelevant. Because there are so many points, it is the most important race of the six.

“It is nice to be in a good position going into the race, because with the world champion in the omnium in there, I can show my strength and compare myself to the best. It’s 160 laps; it’s going to be a long night.”

The night was long for Pelletier-Roy. He fought his way into a tie for second. Then riders, such as Gavria, Ignacio Prado (Mexico) and Gideoni Rodrigues Monteiro (Brazil), lapped the field. Such a move gains 20 points. With 24 laps to go, Pelletier-Roy was in fifth overall, where he’d finish.

“I didn’t want less than the gold,” he said after the race. “I might have lost the podium trying to win. I mean, I think I finished strong because I didn’t want to protect third. I was on home soil so I wanted to give the best show I could. That was all I had.”

Even though the omnium is over, Pelletier-Roy might only be at the halfway point in his track duties. He’s on the men’s team pursuit squad, which rides in the qualifying round Saturday.

“Yup, I’ll be there, second man,” he said. “It’s a different event. Usually, the team pursuit is before the omnium, so it’s a good opener. Now it’s the reverse. But I have an awesome crew of young guys who I’m going to race with. I’m going to give them best shot. We’re going to have a good team pursuit for sure.”

If they do well, Pelletier-Roy will be riding the boards until Sunday evening.