Olympics-Cycling-Easy does it as American Valente retains omnium title

By Geert De Clercq

SAINT QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France (Reuters) - American Jennifer Valente won the gold medal in the women's omnium to conclude Olympic racing on Sunday, winning a second gold in the discipline but this time without the drama of a last-minute crash that nearly cost her the Tokyo title.

Valente comfortably retained her crown in France's sweltering National Velodrome with a consistent performance across the four races.

In Tokyo, she became the first American woman to win an Olympic track title and the first from her country to do so since 2000, despite coming down hard towards the end of her race but climbing back on her bike.

"I don't think an omni is ever under control. A lot of things can happen in bunch racing, and they can happen very quickly," she told Reuters.

Valente added that "staying really attentive and in the race, and present and racing all the way through the end," are key for success in the omnium, where large groups of riders race wheel-to-wheel around the 250 metres oval track.

She then sidestepped a question about trying to qualify for Los Angeles.

"I think I'm going to try and rush to get to the closing ceremonies right now. And that's the only thing I'm thinking about," Valente added.

Poland's Daria Pikulik ended with the silver medal and New Zealand's Ally Wollaston was third.

Pikulik, who was briefly called out of the elimination race but then reinstated, said she was happy and proud with the result, despite the officials' error.

"In the elimination race, I don't know what happened. It was like ‘mistake Pikulik is out’ and I was like, how is this possible?," she told reporters.

Wollaston, who won bronze after taking silver in the team pursuit said she had not even realised that she was in the bronze medal competition until maybe 10 laps to go.

"For my first Olympics, I'm so proud to come away with a silver and a bronze medal," she said.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman and Geert De Clercq; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Ken Ferris)