Germany most successful nation
By Peter Maurer from Grenchen
12.02.2023 | (rsn) – With seven gold medals, one silver and five bronze medals, Germany ended the European Track Championships in Grenchen as the most successful nation. Lea Sophie Friedrich, Emma Hinze and the Madison duo, consisting of Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt, contributed three more medals. For Friedrich it was already the third title in Switzerland.
“Every medal is worth a lot to me, but all the gold medals here were in disciplines that are also anchored in the Olympic program for the 2024 Games,” beamed the 23-year-old. In the women’s keirin she qualified for the final together with her teammate Emma Hinze. The duo determined the race from the start, only the British Emma Finucane was able to place between the two in the final.
“Today I was very nervous, with the exception of the Olympics I don’t really know that from me,” admitted the Dassowerin, who did not show how tense she was in the race. Friedrich rode very confidently to the final and raced there with a long run to the gold medal. “I was very motivated, I really wanted to defend the title. We can be more than satisfied, especially with Emma’s bronze medal. We rocked it quite a bit,” grinned Friedrich, who shared the role of the most outstanding athlete at the European Championships with Harrie from the Netherlands Lavreysen and British Katie Archibald had to share.
Because the Dutchman also won his third gold on the final day, in the same disciplines as Friedrich, by the way. And following the team pursuit and omnium, Archibald shared gold with teammate Elinor Barker in the women’s Madison.
Hinze also won three medals in Grenchen
With two gold medals and one bronze medal, Emma Hinze’s yield was impressive once once more. “Every time I started here, I took at least one medal with me, twice a jersey,” the 25-year-old summed up and explained that following her illness-related break last winter in Grenchen, she had focused more on the keirin than on defending the title in the sprint.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve won a major medal in keirin,” said the Hildesheimer, who last became world champion in this discipline three years ago in Berlin. “That’s why I really wanted to ride to regain confidence in the keirin,” she added, also reporting that the doubts she still had in preparation for the European Championships flew away: “The legs went really well. That I wasn’t expecting it at all.”
Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt also had fast legs in the 22nd and last competition in Grenchen. In the Madison, they won in a tough race thanks to the final standings ahead of Italy with Simone Consonni and Michele Scartezzini. The French world champion duo Donavan Grondin and Benjamin Thomas took bronze.
“That was sporty,” breathed Reinhardt following the award ceremony and explained: “In the end it was an elimination race. Everyone fought for themselves and the strongest team won.” The German pairing was similar to six months ago in Munich from the start very active in organizing the race, diligently collecting points in the intermediate rankings Since no nation was able to win a lap, as was also the case in the women’s Madison, the two Germans cleverly defended their good position and always remained among the best nations.
Reinhardt with good legs and a lot of fun at the end
Thanks to a long breakaway, which didn’t end in a lap win, the Italians pushed past Germany. But in the final sprint the Italians had shot their powder, which was also due to a superbly driving Reinhardt.
“I had the most fun in the last laps because my legs were still really good. When the holes opened up and I was still able to get on them, I knew that we might still turn things around with the last classification,” Reinhardt grinned mischievously.
While he obviously had fun with the pace bolt, his teammate Kluge might only share this joy to a limited extent. “I left 80 laps before the end during an intermediate sprint and then also overlooked Theo at the change,” he described a tricky situation for the German duo. “I hurt myself a lot with that. After that I wasn’t having fun anymore with 30 laps to go. I no longer believed that we might still get the Italians,” he added.
Without winning a round to the Madison success
But Reinhardt kept pushing his partner, even at the end when Kluge didn’t want to change at the finish but still had to take half a lap. “It was really a very, very big achievement today. We really wanted to defend the title and showed once morest a strong field with the reigning world champions that we can do it,” said the man from Eisenhüttenstadt, who following two world championship titles with Reinhardt now also has two joint European championship titles has to show.
And the duo brought the proof for the theory expressed by Kluge in an interview with radsport-news.com that it no longer needs to win a lap in the Madison to be able to win the race. After successfully defending the title, Kluge was also happy to be able to wear the jersey for a whole year. Because of the date rearrangement of the European Championships in February, only six months had passed since the gold medal win in Munich.
The medal table of the Grenchen European Championships:
Rang Land Gold Silber Bronze
1 Deutschland 7 1 5
2 Großbritannien 4 6 2
3 Niederlande 4 1 5
4 Italien 3 3 1
5 Frankreich 1 3 7
6 Belgien 1 1 1
7 Portugal 1 1 0
8 Norwegen 1 0 0
9 Polen 0 3 1
10 Spanien 0 3 0
