Day 1 of the UEC European Track Championships kicked off with the welcome addition of the Stayers race and then saw Team Pursuit qualifiers, the 500m and 1km Time Trial finals, the Women’s Elimination Race and a thrilling Men’s Scratch Race.
Stayers
Qualifying
Two heats saw four riders from each qualifier for the Championship race in the evening with Patrick Kos of the Netherlands, Franz Schiewer of Germany, Peter Joerg of Switzerland and Antoine Gaudillat of France fourth.
In the second Emilien Clere of France, Giuseppe Atzeni of Switzerland and Stefan Schafer of Germany finished on the same lap with Thomas Steger of Germany taking the last of the places in the final.
Men’s Team Pursuit
Qualifying
With many of the participants experimenting with new line-ups at the start of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic cycle, there was some rearranging of the order at the top of the Men’s Team Pursuit qualifying – although the teams making up the top 8 were probably the ones we would have expected.
A strong ride from the French saw them just a tenth off breaking the four minute barrier and a second faster than second placed Denmark. Italy were just a fraction with Russia half a second further back. With just five seconds separating the top right, the First Round is going to be interesting.
Result
1 FRANCE (DENIS Thomas, THOMAS Benjamin, MAITRE Florian, ERMENAULT Corentin) 4:00.108
2 DENMARK (LARSEN Niklas, VON FOLSACH Casper, PEDERSEN Casper Phillip, MADSEN Frederik Rodenberg) 4:01.055
3 ITALY (BERTAZZO Liam, SCARTEZZINI Michele, LAMON Francesco, CONSONNI Simone) 4:01.197
4 RUSSIA (KURBATOV Alexey, SOKOLOV Dmitry, SHILOV Sergey, MANAKOV Viktor) 4:01.713
5 NETHERLANDS (BEUKEBOOM Dion, VAN SCHIP Jan-Willem, PIETERS Roy, EEFTING Roy) 4:02.559
6 GREAT BRITAIN (BOSTOCK Matthew, STEWART Mark, EMADI COFFIN Kian, BURKE Steven) 4:03.021
7 BELGIUM (DE KETELE Kenny, GHYS Robbe, DE VYLDER Lindsay, DE PAUW Moreno) 4:04.467
8 POLAND (CZUBAK Dawid, TEKLINSKI Adrian, STANISZEWSKI Daniel, SAJNOK Szymon) 4:05.161
Women’s Team Pursuit
Qualifying
The Women’s Team Pursuit also some some new line-ups with newly crowned Junior World Road race – and Junior World Team Pursuit and Omnium Champion – Elisa Balsamo joining the Italian line-up which topped the leaderboard on 4:26.413. Poland were a couple of seconds back in second with Great Britain a further second and a half behind. Belarus closed out the top four over three seconds off the British team and with the last of the qualifiers – Ireland – 14 seconds of Italy’s pace, the First Round should be easier to predict than the Men’s!
Result
1 ITALY (BALSAMO Elisa, GUDERZO Tatiana, FRAPPORTI Simona, VALSECCHI Silvia) 4:26.413
2 POLAND (KACZKOWSKA Justyna, PIETRZAK Lucja, PIKULIK Daria, PLOSAJ Nikol) 4:28.432
3 GREAT BRITAIN (KAY Emily, KHAN Dannielle, LLOYD Manon, NELSON Emily) 4:29.732
4 BELARUS (LAPTSIONAK Hanna, PIVOVAROVA Polina, SAVENKA Ina, SHARAKOVA Tatsiana) 4:32.998
5 BELGIUM (CROKET Gilke, DOM Annelies, KOPECKY Lotte, VAN DER MEULEN Kaat) 4:35.230
6 RUSSIA (BADYKOVA Gulnaz, IAKOVENKO Anastasiia, OSHURKOVA Elizaveta, TSYMBALYUK Kseniia) 4:36.185
7 FRANCE (CEDELZENNE Elise, DEMAY Coralie, FOURNIER Roxane, JEULAND Pascale) 4:36.254
8 IRELAND (BOYLAN Lydia, BURNS Eileen, GURLEY Lydia, TURVEY Anna) 4:40.347
Women’s TT 500m
Final
Teenager Pauline Grabosch of Germany was the third of the sixteen starters in the Women’s 500m Time Trial and her time of 34.318 saw her on top of the leaderboard with two riders to go. Those two riders were Daria Shmeleva of Russia and her team mate Anastasia Voinova – who set the current World Record at these Championships in Grenchen last year.
When Shmeleva edged Grabosch’s time – by just eight thousandths of a second – the young German must have feared that she’d be taking home the Bronze but Voinova was almost two tenths down at 34.483 and she followed up her Junior World Title this summer with European Silver.
Result
GOLD SHMELEVA Daria RUS 34.310
SILVER GRABOSCH Pauline GER 34.318
BRONZE VOINOVA Anastasiia RUS 34.483
4 CALVO BARBERO Tania ESP 34.497
5 STARIKOVA Olena UKR 34.906
6 BRASPENNINCX Shanne NED 35.132
7 JAMES Rachel GBR 35.139
8 LAMBERINK Kyra NED 35.157
9 MAROZAITE Migle LTU 35.359
10 VECE Miriam ITA 35.987
Men’s TT Kilo
Final
Quentin Lafargue took Bronze in the Kilometre Time Trial at the World Championships in London earlier this year – and two years ago at the European Championships in Guadeloupe. When he clocked 1:00.685 – to depose long-time leader Eric Engler from top spot – with just two riders to go the crowd knew that he would at least match that. In the event, the better of the two remaining riders – Jose Moreno – could do no better than 1:02.072 and eighth place, leaving ‘Saint’ Quentin to take the title.
There was some confusion over third – with Jiri Janosek of the Czech Republic announced as the Bronze medal winner immediately after the event and even during the medal ceremony. Stood on the podium, though, was his team mate Tomas Babek who just dipped under 1:01 to clinch third spot.
Result
GOLD LAFARGUE Quentin FRANCE 1:00.685
SILVER ENGLER Eric GERMANY 1:00.807
BRONZE BABEK Tomas CZECH 1:00.966
4 JANOSEK Jiri CZECH 1:01.612
5 TRUMAN Joseph GREAT BRITAIN 1:01.669
6 EDELIN Benjamin FRANCE 1:01.967
7 JURCZYK Marc GERMANY 1:01.985
8 MORENO SANCHEZ SPAIN 1:02.072
9 VASIUKHNO Aleksandr RUSSIA 1:02.106
10 DUBCHENKO Alexander RUSSIA 1:02.639
Women’s Elimination
Final
A feisty Elimination race ended with a final three of home favourite Laurie Berthon of France, Katie Archibald of Great Britain and Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands – fresh from a Silver medal at the World Road Race Championships in Doha.
Archibald led out the penultimate sprint and Berthon was left in their wake as Wild and the Scot made it in to the final two. Using the Doha race as a warm-up paid dividends as Wild comfortably took the sprint to clinch the Gold.
Result
GOLD WILD Kirsten NETHERLANDS
SILVER ARCHIBALD Katie GREAT BRITAIN
BRONZE BERTHON Laurie FRANCE
4 HOCHMANN Lucie CZECH REPUBLIC
5 BALEISYTE Olivija LITHUANIA
6 PAWLOWSKA Katarzyna POLAND
7 ROMANYUTA Evgenia RUSSIA
8 SHMAYANKOVA Maryna BELARUS
9 BORISSZA Johanna Kitti HUNGARY
10 EBERT Michaela GERMANY
Men’s Scratch Race
Final
The best race of the evening – by far – was the Men’s Scratch which saw Adrian Teklinski of Poland take a lap just after the half way lap – after earlier efforts from, among others, Gael Suter of Switzerland had come to nothing.
With 14 laps to go it looked as though all Teklinski had to do was sit in the bunch and celebrate his win – and then Suter went again. By the time he took the lap with 6 to go and settled in at the back of the bunch with the Polish rider, it looked as though it would be a sprint for Gold and Silver but, as the pace picked up in the closing laps, Teklinski blew and went out of the back of the bunch, leaving Suter to take a comfortable win.
Teklinski held on for second and a ferocious sprint for third saw Wim Stroetinga of the Netherlands, Felix English of Ireland and Greek sprinter Cristos Volikakis at the head of the bunch. Stroetinga claimed the last of the medals, but the big Greek pipped English for fourth.
Result
GOLD SUTER Gael SWITZERLAND
SILVER TEKLINSKI Adrian POLAND
BRONZE STROETINGA Wim NETHERLANDS -1 lap
4 VOLIKAKIS Christos GREECE
5 ENGLISH Felix IRELAND
6 MULLER Andreas AUSTRIA
7 BUTTAZZONI Alex ITALY
8 KNEISKY Morgan FRANCE
9 HOCHMANN Jiri CZECH REPUBLIC
10 TARAGEL Filip SLOVAKIA
Stayer
Final
The final of the Stayers’ Championship was an hour long but was effectively over within the first five minutes as two of the three German combos – Stefan Schafer and pacer Peter Bauerlein, and Franz Schiewer with Gerhard Gessler pacing – sprinted into a commanding and, ultimately unassailable lead.
They seemed to cruise around while everyone else was digging deep in a vain effort to stay in touch. By the closing stages of the race they were eight laps clear of the third pace pairing of Giuseppe Atzeni and Rene Aebi and Schafer and Bauerlein were positioned, safely, a couple of bike lengths away from lapping their nearest rivals and able to see any attempts Schiewer and Gessler might have made to try to snatch the win.
Result
GOLD SCHAFER Stefan/BAUERLEIN Peter GERMANY
SILVER SCHIEWER Franz/GESSLER Gerhard GERMANY
BRONZE ATZENI Giuseppe/AEBI Rene SWITZERLAND -8 laps
4 JOERG Peter/BAUR Thomas SWITZERLAND -10
5 CLERE Emilien/TOSCANO Francois FRANCE -10
6 GAUDILLAT Antoine/GAUDILLAT Alain FRANCE DNF
7 STEGER Thomas/RUDER Thomas GERMANY DNF
8 KOS Patrick/FACK Willem NETHERLANDS DNF
