Zach Bell has reached the podium for the second time in two weeks.

The Watson Lake cyclist finished third with 37 points in the men's omnium at the 2011 UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Cali, Colombia on Friday.

The 28 year old had a brief break from competition after winning silver with 31 points at the Track Cycling UCI World Cup Classics in Melbourne, Australia, earlier this month.

"It's definitely one of my better starts,” Bell told the Star. "I've never attended back-to-back events and been able to medal.

"I've basically solidified myself as one of the strongest riders in the event at the moment. Having consistent finishes back-to-back is a bit more encouraging than maybe one win and then coming 10th or 12th. It's good to be consistent.”

Bell finished behind gold medalist Edward Clancy of Great Britain with 24 points and Juan Esteban Arango Carvajal of Columbia with 26 points, last week.

Bell now sits in second place in the UCI World Cup overall standings with 18 points, just two points shy of Clancy, who is reigning World Champion.

"Ed impresses me everytime I race against him,” Bell said. "He's got weaknesses, but he mitigates them really well. The difference between him winning an event and him being third is a matter of one mistake.

Arguably, it's the same situation with me … I made a mistake … and this time he got pretty much everything right.”

New Zealander Shane Archbold, who in Melbourne narrowly beat the Yukoner to gold, sits in third overall with 15 points.

Bell again put in a disappointing performance in the elimination race, a newly introduced event at the World Cup omnium, the Olympic event slated for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London which combines six races over two days.

For the second time this month he finished 15th in the event, behind Clancy's fourth and Archbold's seventh.

Bell cited the elimination race as his Achilles heel in Melbourne and as a contributing factor to his losing out on gold.

"I'd say in both races it was the event that prevented me from contesting the overall win, for sure,” Bell said.

"As a racer I'm pretty familiar with the five other events and the strategies and how they operate. Finding the right strategies and the right way to ride those races was pretty easy, but the elimination, this generation of riders hasn't raced it at a high level.”

Bell made changes to his strategy in the elimination race between the Melbourne and Columbia events.

In Melbourne, he explained, he tried to ride strongly in front and occasionally occupy the pocket four or five wheels behind the leader.

In Columbia, he chose to go with the cycle of the race, either on the front or on the back, avoiding the pocket to have better control of the race.

"You could either be on the front, and run fast enough so that not everybody could come around, or you could be on the back and have control over where you go in the last half lap, so that you're not coming through in that last place position to get pulled,” Bell said.

Trouble was, a group of other riders adopted similar changes, stifling Bell's strategy.

"It ends up having a large group of us fighting to do the same thing,” he added.

"The difference was there was quite a few guys that decided to cycle through this way, and so you just ended up having five or six guys every lap that would come off the back and you were in the same situation trying to sprint with all these five guys.

"It ended up being a lot more energy wasting.”

Bell had better luck in the other five races.

He placed fifth in the flying lap to Clancy's second; third in the points race to Clancy's 10th; eighth in the individual pursuit to Clancy's second; second in the scratch race to Clancy's fifth; and fourth in the time trial to Clancy's first.

"I'm glad it's the only one I'm struggling with, because it really gives me one thing to focus on; I have the other ones, more or less, at a level where I need them,” Bell said.

In fact, his result in the one-kilometre time trial was at a higher level than he expected.

Previously, he failed to finished the event below one minute and four seconds, his time in Melbourne.

This time out, he managed a time of 1:03.910.

"That was a real positive result for me, because I really haven't done any work on it, and it seems to just be improving with experience,” Bell said.

"I think if you're consistently riding under a 1:04, it's going to be competitive.”

Bell said he tried to carry his form in Australia to Columbia.

"It was a pretty similar experience because there wasn't really much turnaround time between the two events, so there wasn't a whole lot of time to make adaptations,” he said.

"Right now, it's all geared toward qualifying for the Olympics. Not having my best form right now is probably better than flying at the moment.”