It was a picturesque sunny day and a perfect day for racing. All categories eagerly anticipated a hot, fast and fun day of racing. We had 12 riders representing the club; Youth D – Mason, Luke + Seb. Youth C – Charlie, Seb. Youth B – Cooper, Alex, Gabriel, Harley and Felix. Youth A – Noah and Me.
Kickstarting the day was the 1lap or 2lap time trials for the competitors, in the youth D race Luke Spicer pulled out an impressive 3rd place, and across the older categories Alex came home with a strong 3rd place and Noah Wheller with a massive ride coming in 6th.
Swiftly moving onto the scratch, a pattern began to emerge with both Luke and Alex placing 3rd in the scratch and beginning to cement their podium positions.
Meanwhile in the A boys after a disappointing time trial I managed to bring home the win in the scratch bumping me up to 3rd overall. Onto the elimination, known as one of the most physically and mentally demanding races in the omnium. In youth D Luke Spicer came home with yet another 3rd place establishing himself as one of the strongest in the pack. In youth B Alex held on for a strong 5th place whilst Felix managed a super impressive ride coming in 3rd. Similarly I came away with 3rd moving myself up to 2nd overall.
Onto the sprint heats, an often overlooked race within the Omnium but it failed to disappoint with many thrilling sprints taking place. Luke spicer came in 3rd once again and Alex goodwill also grabbed an impressive 3rd place. Meanwhile Felix came 2nd in his heat putting him up in contention for a top 5 finish. In the youth A’s I was able to come away with a win the sprints, local track knowledge definitely having an advantage. Noah also managed to win his sprint moving him up further in the standings.
Onto the final race of the day.
The points race, known to make or break a riders Omnium, the points race is a thrilling race to ride and to watch. In the youth D category Luke spicer cemented his 3rd place overall with a strong performance in the points. In the youth B category Alex goodwill also confirmed his podium finish with Felix narrowly missing out on a top 5, despite his impressive ride. Finally down to the youth A boys where all was to play for, I came into the race just 8 points of the win and was looking to cause an upset. I would come close, bringing the gap down to just 2 points going into the final sprint. However it wasn’t meant to be and I was forced to settle for 2nd. The real ride of the race came from our own Noah wheller who rode to an exceptional 2nd place finish moving him up to a strong 8th place finish.
A very successful outing for the Preston Park massive who all put in maximum effort and commitment to the racing against strong opposition, special mention to Mason riding up a category in the Youth Ds, and to both the Seb’s who successfully competed in their first omniums – all great experience for the future. Well done to Charlie and Cooper both in the first years of their respective categories – look forward to seeing what you can do next year. And a big shout to Gabriel and Harley for making the Youth B races so exciting.
I would like to end with a final thanks to everyone involved in making it possible, from marshalling the gates, time keepers, holders and those on tea and coffee duty everyone played an important role in making this omnium a great success.
There is a great gallery of the day by local photographer Alex Rout; https://agr9photographic.pixieset.com/nationalyouthomnium2024/
Gallery Password; NYO_0524
Eddy Boyle
