Freiberg rides scratch race win to omnium gold

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Australian Michael Freiberg moved into the overall lead and the eventual omnium gold medal with a smartly-executed scratch race and solid individual pursuit, overtaking the young French two-time junior world champion Bryan Coquard who led at the end of day one.

In the final race, the kilometre time trial, the 20-year-old did more than enough to secure his rainbow jersey over New Zealand's Shane Archbold and Belgian Gijs Van Hoecke.

Freiberg, along with Spaniard Eloy Teruel and  Van Hoecke, were part of a breakaway that lapped the field in the scratch race, and the Australian prevailed in the final dash to the line.

"The high point for me would have to be going into that scratch race and knowing what I needed to do and to be able to pull it off. I loved that race, just the way it worked for me was absolutely perfect. It set up the victory here tonight," said Freiburg.

"I'm a bit disappointed about the pursuit this morning - I saw myself as riding it better. The omnium is a difficult event - six of the hardest events you'll come across in two days... anything can happen."

New Zealander Archbold, second to Russian Alexey Markov in the pursuit, failed to make the winning move and dropped out of his brief overall lead down to fourth behind the top three in the scratch race.

He rallied back in the kilometre, taking the win to rocket back up into the silver medal while Van Hoecke did enough to hold onto third overall.

"I'm definitely happy about the result. Thhe omnium is hard on the emotions, going up and down like that. I wasn't happy about getting 16th in the points race yesterday, but coming back to get second overall made up for it," said Archbold.

The 22-year-old was the yo-yo of the event, taking fourth in the 200m before plummeting in the rankings after the points race. He rallied back with a fine result in the elimination in fifth before rallying this morning with a pursuit that put him into the overall lead.

But once the break went in the scratch race, he was on the back foot again. "The scratch race is only 60 laps and a lot can happen. There were a lot of riders watching me, winning two World Cups and all. Going into the scratch this morning it's hard to follow everyone with everyone following you - so it just didn't work out."

It came down to the kilometre, and Archbold did far more than he needed to just to get into the medals, taking the win and edging Van Hoecke down to bronze.

"I did a personal best on a supposedly slow track, so I can't complain with that," he said.

Omnium rounds

Canadian Zach Bell began proceedings on day one of the omnium by taking out the 200m flying lap. Bell posted a 13.320 to edge out Frenchman Bryan Coquard by two thousandths of a second. Czech Alois Kankovsky and Archbold rounded out the top of the rankings following the first event.

Next up was the points race, which proved to be one of the most aggressive races of the world championships so far. Teruel kicked off the attacking in the first few laps, and was joined by Dane Lasse Norman Hansen and Luis Mansilla of Chile.

Hansen was the top-ranked rider in the move which went on to lap the field after the second sprint. Next off the front was Russian Alexey Markov, who took sprint number three en route to lapping the field and claiming the 20 point bonus.

Juan Esteban Arango (Colombia) attacked a move from German Erik Mohs and Martyn Irvine (Ireland) ahead of sprint number four, going on solo to take his lap while the others went back to the field. A series of attacks followed, with Mansilla taking sprint five and Freiberg sprint six before the latter rider escaped the field, along with Van Hoecke, and succeeded in lapping the field.

At the midpoint of the race, scratch race champion Kwok Ho Ting launched a solo move, and even though he was joined by Hansen the pair could not regain the back of the field and were absorbed after sprint number eight.

The pace remained high, with fractures forming in the group as riders tried and failed to gain back the 20 points on the seven riders who had lapped up.

Arango managed to mop up sprints number nine and 11, giving him a one-point advantage over Mansilla to claim the race win. Teruel nabbed one point in the penultimate sprint to edge Hansen out of third.

A dangerous split formed with Mansilla, Arango and Teruel, and the ever-attentive Australian Freiberg was able to go across to the leaders. With the laps counting down, Freiberg attacked and succeeded in gaining three quarters of a lap, but as the final sprint kicked in, he was unable to close down the final metres.

"I needed 18 points to get into the lead, and it wasn't too far to make jump," said Freiberg. "I knew I had to get there before the last lap, but I just couldn't get across."

The Australian had a scare when he almost ran into Great Britain's Sam Harrison while he attempted to take a lap in the finale.

"I thought he saw me coming - he made a motion like he was going to swing up so I made the split second decision to dive under and he must have changed his mind, and he shut the door," said Freiberg. "That's OK, it's racing."

Bell remained in the lead of the rankings following the race, while Hansen moved into second with Van Hoeck in third.

The Canadian was heavily marked in the points race after winning the 200m flying lap. "That's what happens when you win the first event," said Bell. "I knew if I got it right I'd be in the mix with the fastest guys. There were points in the race when everyone was struggling.

"The guys who got around had a bit more of a leash because of the 200 results, and whenever two guys who had been doing well all year in the World Cup moved, we'd have a whole train behind us. It would have been nice if it had gone better, but I'm still in a better position than anyone else in the race."

Coquard moved into the overall lead by being last man standing in the elimination race. The dual junior world champion would not last atop the standings, however, as he finished third from last in the individual pursuit.

The new board had Archbold, Freiberg and Teruel at the top, with Viviani trailing. The Italian missed the winning move in the scratch race, as did Archbold, dropping them down the rungs.

But the Kiwi was able to rally back with a win in the kilometre, but not enough to take over the top stop from the consistently good Freiberg.

200m flying lap

Elimination race

Standings after three races

Race 4 - individual pursuit

Race 5 - scratch race

Race 6 - kilometre time trial

Final standings