Cycling: Archbold aims to improve on fifth placing

Shane Archbold has plenty to work on before the London Olympics. Photo / Getty Images

A fifth placing in the omnium at the world championships in Melbourne last night has convinced Shane Archbold he can go at least two places better in London.

The Timaru rider had a strong second day in the six-discipline event, picking up a third and fourth in the scratch race and kilo time trial respectively. Those excellent results were balanced by a sloppy pursuit, where he finished seventh, but the real damage was done on day one when he finished a lowly 16th in the points race.

Each placing you receive adds a point to your total, with the low scorer winning. Australia's Glenn O'Shea won with 22 points, while Archbold accumulated 38. The gap between Archbold and bronze was seven points.

"Obviously the points race is not one of my strengths lately," the 23-year-old said. "I'm not winning, so something is going wrong. We're working on some things in training."

The mullet-haired rider was most pleased with his flying lap (2nd) and scratch race (3rd) performances, but the fact he had two relatively poor events has given him plenty of "work-ons" in the next four months.

Archbold had a trying build-up, crashing heavily at Bendigo recently. That meant he couldn't train for the better part of a week.

He will leave now for Belgium where he races on the road for Marco Polo Racing, an Ethiopian team based in Europe. Team pursuiter Marc Ryan also races in their colours.

In the women's omnium, Joanne Kiesanowski is eighth of 24 competitors on 28 points after three of the six events. The Cantabrian struggled in the flying lap but picked up sixth-place finishes in the points race and elimination race.

Australian Annette Edmondson leads with 11 points, but Kiesanowski is juts seven points out of the bronze medal position.