The velodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines saw a full day of exciting action on Day 13 of the Paris Games:

• The men’s omnium race headlined the day with France’s Benjamin Thomas winning in front of a loud crowd.
• New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews continued her impressive Olympics in the women’s keirin.
• The men’s individual sprint also saw some drama in the quarterfinals.

Details from each event are below.

The omnium event is four races — a scratch, tempo, elimination and points race — to award the best “all-around” rider on the track. For the men's event, the first three races are 40 laps long.

France’s Benjamin Thomas won the day's gauntlet with 164 points, much to the delight of the home crowd.

After winning gold, Thomas tried to explain his emotions. “Everything — it’s tears of joy, of happiness. I’m really proud of what I did today. I took so much pleasure on the track, (it) was really a game. Today, I played a lot, I suffered.

"It’s so nice, and I will remember this day, I think, forever.”

FULL RESULTS

The first race of the day featured the scratch race, which is a mass start and race to the finish. Thomas started his day with a win while medal contenders like Great Britain’s Ethan Hayter and Jan-Willem van Schip finished in the top 10. American Grant Koontz tried to make an attack in the race, but lost steam and finished 15th.

The tempo race saw Belgium’s Fabio van den Bossche claim the victory. The 23-year-old has been vocal about his focus on the omnium and his desire to win it in Paris. He earned 40 points in the race, which launched him into first overall with 76 points. Koontz earned 24 points in the race, which had him in 14th after two races.

The elimination race saw some controversy when the judges seemed to have difficulty determining who was eliminated. In the end, Hayter was victorious as the last man standing. He catapulted up the standings to fifth, entering the final race. The Brit sat in font the entire race and controlled the pace, which was impressive in the packed field. Koontz managed to avoid elimination for several laps when he seemed to be out, but in the end only secured 6 points and dropped to 16th overall in the standings.

Van den Bossche entered the points race on top of the standings, but with double points anyone near the top was still in contention, including van den Bossche and Hayter. With 24 laps to go, Thomas was in the lead of both the points race and overall standings, when disaster almost struck as he crashed to the ground. He lucked out that it wasn’t a sprint lap, as he quickly hopped back on his bike and regained his position without losing his lead in the standings.

Thomas explained how he remained calm. “First, I checked my bike and everything was OK. I looked at myself, and nothing was broken. Fortunately, I crashed on the right, and it was not such a hard crash.”

On the ninth sprint lap, Thomas made his race-winning move to earn points. After that move, he led the field with 158 points — he had a 9-point lead on second-place Luri Leitao — and only seven laps to go.

As the bell rang on the final lap, the crowd rose to their feet. Thomas was able to sit up and celebrate as he crossed the finish line to win gold. World champion Leitao finished second while van den Bossche was delighted to take bronze.

Koontz finished 16th overall in his Olympic debut. It’s the only event the United States qualified for in men’s track cycling at the Paris Olympics. 

Thomas' gold medal is France's ninth cycling medal in Paris, the most by any nation. France has now earned medals in each cycling discipline (BMX racing, BMX freestyle, mountain, road, and track) in Paris. Leitao became the first person from Portugal to win a medal in track cycling while van den Bossche won his first career Olympic medal.

Hearing the French national anthem play in the stadium was emotional for Thomas. “I couldn’t even sing, I was overtaken with emotion. I saw my father. I saw my family. My father put me on the bike when I was three or four years old, and my brother gave me the pleasure of riding bicycles. 

"This is why I do this sport. I do cycling to have fun, to live emotions and to give emotions to people.”

SCRATCH RACE RESULTS l TEMPO RACE RESULTS l ELIMINATION RACE RESULTS

The men’s individual sprint medal races will feature four favorites: the Netherlands' Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland, Australia’s Matthew Richardson, and Great Britain’s Jack Carlin. They all had very different experiences to get there, though.

FULL RESULTS

The first two quarterfinal matchups saw Lvreysen and Richardson advance easily, needing only two out of three races to advance to the semifinals over their competitors. 

In the third matchup, Hoogland — who has already won gold in the men’s team sprint for the Netherlands — needed three races to finish off Great Britain’s Hamish Turnbull. 

The final matchup was the most contested of the day. It started when Japan’s Ota Kaiya upset Carlin in the first round. 

It looked like Ota had pulled off the improbable win in their second head-to-head battle, when he crossed the finish line first. However, there was contact during the race and the judges ruled that Ota should be relegated and forfeit the race, which caused the duo to face off again in a winner-take-all. 

In the final race, Carlin controlled the pace from the sprint lane with two laps to go when the pair again came in close contact, but the race was ruled clean, and Carlin edged out Ota to advance to the semifinals.

The gold medal race saw a heavy-hitting field with New Zealand’s Ellese Andrews, Great Britain’s Emma Finucane, and Germany’s Emma Hinze. Andrews took the lead early and held it through the final lap to win with a time of 10.744. 

Winning gold was just starting to sink in for Andrews after the race. “I feel like this journey has been coming. This is just an absolute pinnacle moment of my cycling career. I began cycling when I was 14 years old and began sprinting when I was 19, and here we are at 24. It has been a journey, and it’s been an amazing one.”

FULL RESULTS

It looked like she made her attack too early, as world sprint champion Funicane challenged, however, Andrews held her off for the gold. Netherland's Hetty van de Wouw snuck in for the silver, while Finucane finished with the bronze. 

Andrews said her early lead was on purpose. “I just wanted to race. I want to own the race. Basically, that was sort of my mental space going into it. I just wanted to put it all out there. I wanted to have the ability to absolutely empty the tank. If that had gotten me a different placing, I would have been happy with that, but the fact that it got me gold is special.”

Germany’s Lea Sophie Friedrich found herself riding in the seventh-place race after a disappointing semifinal race where she pulled up near the finish. The German had a busy competition schedule, as she already won bronze in the women’s team sprint on Monday. She’d make the most of it and finish first in the heat. France’s Mathilde Gros capitalized on the home crowd cheer to finish .087 behind the German. 

Andrews' gold added to her silver medal from the women's team sprint on Monday. It's her second Olympic keirin medal after winning silver in Tokyo. 

“Tokyo was so special to me and that silver was an amazing bonus at that time and such a special moment to reflect back on now. But to come here and to do one better is just something else," Andrews reflected.

Finucane added to her gold medal from the team sprint on Monday as Great Britain continues its dominance in track cycling at the Paris Games. The Brits have won a medal in each of the first five track cycling events in Paris.

“I’m so thankful that I was in the mix and to get a bronze medal," Finucane said. "Literally, when I crossed that line, I couldn't believe it."