Kenny and Trott bring home the Gold
So you'll probably remember a couple of weeks ago I warned you I wouldn't really be following the Olympics because I have a dissertation to write (one week and less than 1000 words to go on that) and I have an addictive personality when it comes to sport. But then I went and did it anyway, because you know, it's the Olympics. But out of all the Olympic sports I've been invested in, none has caught my love more than the cycling.
Everyone has their own stories, their own moments that just stick with them long after the Olympics has finished. For me, most of these have occurred in the velodrome. Team GB have just been absolutely stunning on the bikes and I've fallen in love with each and every member of the Team GB cycling team, all fifteen of whom came out with a medal. By now you all know the stats, six golds, four silvers and a bronze for the teams, Sir Bradley Wiggins becoming Britain's most decorated Olympian, Jason Kenny's triple giving him six golds, making him the joint most golds of any Olympian and Laura Trott becoming Britain's most golden female Olympian with four golds (expect Sir and Dame to adorn their names before the end of the year). It has been a monumental Olympics for British cycling.
And what's staggering for me is just how easy they all made it look. The teams were breaking world records left, right and center. The US women's pursuit team broke the world record in their semi-final, only for our team to beat them by miles in the final and take another two seconds off that world record. The Australian men's pursuit team looked extremely dangerous, only for GB to flatline them in the end.
And then there's our golden couple. Between them they've collected five of GB's six gold medals, as part of GB's men's sprint and women's pursuit team respectively, but also individually, Jason Kenny and Laura Trott turned on the style last night, with Kenny having already picked up his fifth gold in the men's individual sprint, simply turning over anyone who dared come up against him, including his own teammate Callum Skinner.
Trott was first up in the omnium, an event that Mark Cavendish had won silver in whilst Trott had completed the first three events. Trott had come second in the first event: the scratch race which was a 15km race. One rider, the Belorussian Sharakova decided to lap the pack and Laura wisely decided to let her, as Sharakova spent all her energy. Laura just waited in the pack and was quickest across the line to take second. The next two events were all about Laura Trott - the women's individual pursuit and the elimination race. Laura is an endurance racer, and as part of that women's world record breaking pursuit team, it was no surprise that she pipped American threat Sarah Hammer to first in that event, before absolutely dominating the women's elimination race, where Hammer was once again forced to lose ground, only coming third.
But what's really staggering is not what Trott did on Monday, but what she did on Tuesday. As an endurance rider, she was expected to lose a little bit of ground on the fourth and fifth events. First the time trial, a two lap sprint from a standing start, which was arguably her favourite of the two events. The most important thing was not to lose much ground on Belgian rider Jolien D'Hoore and Hammer. Trott didn't, she came second, beating both D'Hoore and Hammer narrowly, and losing only to Australian rider Annette Edmondson. Moving onto the flying lap then, which is fairly self-explanatory. "If she could finish top five she'll be happy with that" Chris Hoy explained. Once again, the goal was just to make sure that she didn't lose ground on Hammer, D'Hoore and the increasingly dangerous Edmondson. Once again, Laura Trott didn't. She won the race by a mouth-watering 0.17s, nearly four tenths of a second quicker than Hammer and a blistering half a second ahead of D'Hoore. One of her weakest events, and she'd smashed it. In fact I think that's a misnomer. Based on Trott's scores of 2nd, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 1st, she has no weak events.
The points race was an absolute joke. Trott just cycled. And she carried on cycling, picking up a massive 34 points, the same as Hammer and more than D'Hoore to finish 6th in the points race and just as far ahead as when she'd started the race. She covered every possible move, she made moves of her own, she took points for the fun of it. She was toying with the Belgian and American, who quickly realised that they were better off scrapping for silver than bothering to try and challenge Trott, who was so far ahead of them that she might as well have been in her own competition. She wasn't even close to winning the race, as Danish woman Amelie Dideriksen and New Zealand's Lauren Ellis went for absolute broke trying to scramble back into medal positions, but just fell short, but Laura did not just what she needed to do, but significantly more than that, a very comfortable and intelligent ride.
So having secured her magnificent fourth gold, her second of the games, Trott got to sit back and relax. Or not, as she still had to watch her husband to be fight for his sixth gold, and his third of the games. And if that was nerve-wracking for me sat on the sofa at home, I can't imagine how Trott must have felt. And for Kenny of course, the problem was the opposite, trying to focus on his own race whilst watching Laura win. At least Laura made it easy for him.
And then came Jason Kenny's Keirin final and the drama ramped up to eleven, as the race had to be stopped. Someone had overtaken the derny bike that led out the riders. And the man at the front of the race was Jason Kenny. Replay after replay was analysed. Was the derny off the track? Where had Jason overtaken it? Had the derny left the track too late? Was that an excuse? The doubt was there, but was the evidence. On the one hand, the race had been stopped, you would have thought that someone would be disqualified. But on the other, it looked so close, so tight, that it would have been harsh to knock out the Brit and he probably just about deserved the benefit of the doubt, which he got, after five or ten long, nerve-wracking minutes. Part of the problem was that the organisers didn't have a proper side-on camera with which to judge. Luckily, Team GB did, and Iain Dyer was happy to supply the evidence, hopeful that it would vindicate his man.
So the race restarted, only to stop again, as this time the German Eilers was the man who went off too early. Groans all round, as the race threatened to descend into farce. "It only ever happens once in a blue moon," Chris Hoy informed viewers. "I've never seen it happen twice before, let alone in an Olympic final."
And when the race finally, finally, got underway for the third and final time, and everyone passed the derny bike legally, we had a real race on our hands. Kenny got off to a bad start, and stayed down in third. The question was asked: could he do it? And then, as they approached the final back straight, when it looked like he had left it too late, Kenny made his move. And what a move it was. As they came round the final corner, there was no doubt who was winning the race, as Kenny showed why he's the Olympic sprint champion, with a magnificent burst of pace over the final 50m to fly home and take the gold.
But it wasn't just their imperious performances on the track that made me fall in love with Trott and Kenny, but their human sides. Trott's complete disbelief that she'd won, despite the fact that it was obvious to anyone who'd seen her ride just one event that she was a different class to the rest of the field. Kenny's nonchalance at the prospect of having won six Olympic golds. He was so unassuming and laid back, she was an emotional wreck, and me along with her. They make such a perfect couple, but more importantly, they both make perfect Olympic cyclists, and they pulled off a stunning display to light up the velodrome last night.
Olympic Watch
- Becky James and Katy Marchant completed the cycling medal rush with silver and bronze respectively in the women's individual sprint, both losing out to the incredible German Kristina Vogel.
- And there were also medals to be had in the sailing, where Giles Scott confirmed his phenomenal gold, boxing where Joshua Buatsi lost his fight to earn a bronze, and diving, where Jack Laugher came back from scraping into the final to claim a second medal of his games with a silver.
- And there were also two bronzes to complete an incredible haul for Britain's gymnasts, as high bar specialist Nile Wilson and Britain's youngest Olympian, 16 year old floor specialist Amy Tinkler picked up medals.
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