Sir Chris Hoy said Team GB cyclist Matthew Walls has put himself in “the best possible position” for the upcoming points race in the men’s Omnium and said Mr Walls’ performance reminded him of fellow Olympic cyclist Laura Kenny. He explained Mr Walls was trying to eliminate France’s Benjamin Thomas from the “back of the bunch”after he said he rode with “confidence” throughout. Mr Walls takes the total lead with only the final points round to go with Mr Walls leading with 114pts to Netherland’s second-place 110pts.
The current leaderboard sees Mr Walls leading followed by the Netherland’s Jan Willem van Schip with 110pts.
France comes in third with Benjamin Thomas boasting 106pts.
During the elimination race, Mr Walls was beaten by Italy’s Elia Viviani but was able to secure a huge number of points to put him at the top of the leaderboard.
Sir Chris watched the tense elimination race after co-host Sue Barker remarked Mr Walls’ confident riding.
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He added: “It reminded me of Laura Kenny the way he rode that race.
“It was really quite sneaky the way he was trying to take Benjamin Thomas at the back of the bunch there trying to eliminate him.
“He was riding with confidence, he did run out legs a little at the end there.
“But as we’ve already seen Viviani has had a couple of relatively poor performances.
The Elimination Race, which Mr Walls took part in here, kicks out cyclists if they are the slowest athlete once laps are completed.
The final Points Round will see cyclists bring their total points to a final race where points are awarded on lapping and taken away for being lapped.
Laura Kenny was awarded silver earlier this week when her team lost to the Netherlands in the team sprint final.
Her husband, Jason Kenny, become Team GB’s most decorated Olympian after he won another silver – beating former record holder Sir Chris Hoy.
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