Bobby Lea Wins Omnium At USA Cycling Track Nationals

2016 Olympian Bobby Lea won the omnium on Tuesday as he took two of the four events on Tuesday and second in the two others. Lea was second in the elimination race to open the day behind Zachary Kovalcik with Roger Ainslie in third before holding off Kovalcik and Zachary Carlson in the 1000m time trial. Lea’s time of 1:07.351 was just over three tenths of a second faster than Kovalcik and just under four tenths faster than Carlson. Later in the day Lea came in second to Kovalcik in the flying lap in 18.926 to Kovalcik’s 18.819 with Jordan Marhanka third in that race. Lea closed out the omnium and defended his title by winning the points race with 234 points compared to 210 for Kovalcik and 184 for Carlson.

On the women’s side Tela Crane, last year’s runner-up, won the title this year winning all four events on the second day. Crane was first in front of Danielle Mullis and Cathering Moore in the elimination race while she beat Cheryl Fuller-muller and Clarice Sayle in the 500m time trial. Her time of 37.736 was over 2.5 seconds faster than Fuller-muller. Crane won the flying lap by over 0.6 seconds over Sayle and Fuller-muller. Sayle came in second with 219 points in the point race while Crane won with 235. Mullis was third in the event with 196 points.

Lea also won the individual pursuit final for the second straight year by topping Dean Phillips by over nine seconds while Charles Cassin won the bronze medal. On the women’s side Christina Birch held off Jasmine Zamora for gold by 4.5 seconds while Esther Walker won bronze. Zamora had finished seventh in the event last year.

Mandy Marquardt and Madalyn Godby met for the sprint final again but this year it was Marquardt that got the better of the matchup. McKenzie Browne finished third, a big step up from 13th last year. On the men’s side David Espinoza held off Dominic Suozzi to win the national title after finishing third last year. Suozzi had been seventh last year. James Mellen finished third after a fifth place finish in 2015.

In the keirin event James Mellen took the top spot over Edward Horvet and Jamie Alvord. Mellen had been fifth with Horvet 11th last year. On the women’s side Marquardy won another title with Colleen Gulick and Kimberly Ann Zubris in the next two spots. Gulick had finished fifth in 2015.

Previous USA Cycling Track Nationals Coverage:
Preview
Monday Update

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *