March 1, 2019, Pruszkow, Poland- After recovering from a crash part-way through the Points Race and pulling away from the pack with another rider for a courageous final sprint lap, Jennifer Valente (San Diego, Calif.) received the Bronze medal today in the Omnium at the 2019 UCI Track World Championships in Pruszkow, Poland.
The Omnium is an event with a series of four races: the Scratch Race, Tempo Race, Elimination Race and Points race. Points are awarded after each of the first three races, the points a rider earns during the Points race are added to their total and the winner is determined by who scores the most amount of cumulative points.
When asked about her performance, Valente said, “In the Omnium it’s important to take it one race at a time and make the most of each opportunity. We trained very hard specifically for this, putting as much energy as possible into each event and spending as little as possible to recover in between. I stuck with this all the way to the end and am very happy with the medal.”
Valente came out of the Scratch Race in third place. After dropping to eighth after the Tempo race, she came back and won the Elimination race in a sprint with eventual Gold medalist Kristin Wild from the Netherlands bringing her to fourth place overall leading into the final race. After winning the first sprint in the Points Race, Valente suffered a crash mid-way through but came back to eventually score enough points during the final sprint to secure third place.
“Jenn really showed what a tough competitor she was tonight,” said USA Cycling’s Director of Elite Athletics, Road and Track, Jeff Pierce, “After losing a little ground in the Tempo she came back to dominate and win elimination. In the Points race, she got up after her crash and fought all the way to the end attacking off the front for the final lap. It was a brilliant ride.”
This marks the eighth World Championship medal for Valente and first medal in the Omnium, besting her fifth place finish in the event in 2018. Valente will compete again on Sunday in the Points race, in which she took the silver medal in 2018.
For complete results and information on the 2019 UCI Track World Championships in Pruszkow, Poland visit the event website here: http://www.pruszkow2019.pl/
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For more information contact Kelly Fox: apalermo@usacycling.org
