The men’s Keirin race this afternoon concluded the 2018 edition of the Track European Championships at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow (Great Britain).
For five days, this modern Scottish venue was completely full, demonstrating the high technical level of this continental event.
The Netherlands and Russia proved to be the reference countries in this sector. The Dutch won the titles in the men’s races (Team Sprint, Kilometre with Matthijs Buchli, Sprint with Jeffrey Hoogland), the Russians in the women’s events (Sprint and 500 metres with Daria Shmeleva who also won the gold medal with Anastasiia Voinova in the Team Sprint). The Keirin titles were won by Stefan Botticher (Germany) and Mathilde Gros (France).
Italy (Viviani, Bertazzo, Scartezzini, Ganna and Lamon) were victorious in the men’s Team Pursuit beating Switzerland in the final. In the women’s there was a local win by Great Britain with Laura Kenny (also first in the Elimination), Katie Archibald, Elinoir Barker, Eleanor Dickinson and Neah Evans.
The multiple World Champion Kirsten Wild (Netherlands) finished the continental event with two wins (Scratch and Omnium) whereas Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Italy) won the Points Race title and the German Lisa Brennauer dominated the Individual Pursuit beating the local rider Katie Archibald.
In the men’s Omnium the very young Briton Ethan Hayter, aged 19, lead a superb and commanding race in the final Points Race beating the current Olympic Champion Elia Viviani. Another Briton, Matthew Walls gained first place in the Elimination.
Three years after his success in 2015, the Pole Wojciech Pszczolarski once again got to wear the European Champion jersey in the Points Race, while the Individual Pursuit gold medal went to the German Domenic Weinstein and the Ukraine rider Roman Gladysh won in the Scratch. The men’s Madison was very exciting and closely fought with an immediate head to head between the Belgian team comprising Kenny De Ketele and Robbe Ghys and the German team with the current World Champions Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt. After gaining a lap ahead, the two teams responded to every attack but in the last laps the British riders Ethan Hayter and Oliver Wood made a last minute attempt and managed to just beat the peloton finishing in third place behind Belgium and Germany. In the women’s, victory went to the Danish riders Amalie Dideriksen and Julie Leth.
Rocco Cattaneo, President of the Union Européenne de Cyclisme: «The edition that has just finished today at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow is one of the best of the Track European Championships. For five days, we have watched very high level technical races but above all we have enabled a huge audience to experience the beauty of Track cycling thanks to full live coverage of the event. The initial viewing figures show that Track cycling obtained excellent results, proving that we are on the right track.
On behalf of myself and the Union Européenne de Cyclisme Management Board, I would like to thank the Glasgow 2018 European Championships and the City of Glasgow, the hosts of this major sporting event. »
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