Race report by Elias Hückmann, U15
Last week was the Junior European Championships. I was particularly looking forward to this event, as it gave me new experiences and I was able to compare myself favourably with the international field of starters. I had a total of four races on the programme for the week.
The first thing I did on Tuesday lunchtime was to start my Time Trial (TT) round. This lap is also the eliminator lap, for which you also qualified here. It was very short (approx. 1 min) and full of bends and included many sprint sections. My motivation was extremely high as I wanted to start my race week with a good result. So everything went as planned and I was able to finish 9th in the U15 on the TT circuit, which also qualified me for the Eliminator. This lap time was also important for the starting position in the relay race, as each team member's TT time is totalled to determine their starting position. My team consisted of Moritz Romeike (INNcycling Phonework Bike Team), Valeria Ketterl (TSV Benediktbeuern / XC Racing Youngsters) and myself.
Moritz started the race from 30th place, i.e. the 6th starting row. He rode a solid lap and came into the transition zone in 14th place. Now it was my turn as the 2nd rider. I gave it my all again on this one lap, as the personal lap time counted towards the starting position for the main race (XCO). I managed to ride the second-fastest lap and entered the transition zone in 3rd place, where I handed over to Valeria. She also rode a fast lap, but she couldn't keep up the pace against the boys, who often rode towards the end, and finished in 17th place. This result satisfied us all.
Eliminator: Fractions of a second decide at the start
On Wednesday I drove the EliminatorA sprint against three other riders, in which the fastest two qualified for the next round. Unfortunately, I missed the start by fractions of a second and didn't make it through the first lap. So I immediately had to freshen up my legs for the following XCO race and drink a lot, as the extreme heat demanded a lot from me. I managed this well and realised on Friday before the warm-up that I had good legs. That calmed me down again before the start. After all, the XCO was going to be my most important race of the week. I wanted to be among the front runners here.
So I went into the event with the motto XCO raceAll or nothing. After a fantastic start, I got into the leading group. The following three laps demanded everything from me due to the long climbs and technical descents. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep up with the pace of the Frenchman Noa Filippi (Team Sud France) and continued to fight for second place. So I rode into the last lap with the Dutchman Mads Pé Teunissen van Manen (Team MBC Bar-End). I managed to open up a gap with an attack on the climb. I was able to hold this gap and cross the finish line overjoyed.
The 2nd place and my silver medal made me more than proud, and I was able to end the week with a smile. Overall, I was more than satisfied with my performance. I also gained a lot of new impressions and experiences.
Elias' results from the European Youth Championships in Capriasca
- Time Trial 9th place from 218
- Time Trial plus relay lap time 2nd place from 130
- XCR (Relay) Place 17 of 112 (Elias drove the team to 3rd place as the 2nd driver in the team)
- XCE (Eliminator) Retired in 1st round
- XCO 2nd place from 116 (European runner-up)
Race report Lucie Hückmann, U17
For me, the European Championships in Capriasca were all about seeing what I could do after my flu-like infection around 3.5 weeks ago. Starting with the time trial, I was able to improve my performance in the team relay and was pretty motivated. I also really liked the varied course. However, the XCO in the sweltering heat was extremely challenging. Unfortunately, I had to realise that my fitness wasn't up to it. So I decided to end the XCO race early for health reasons.
Lucie's results from the European Youth Championships in Capriasca
- Time Trial Place 72 from 136 in the U17w
- Time Trial plus relay lap time Place 26 from 67
- XCR/relay 75th place from 126
- XCE Not qualified (only the first 32 riders in the Time Trial qualified)
- XCO DNF in the 2nd of 3 rounds
Race report Paulina Lange, U17
Finally, the long-awaited European Youth Championships in Capriasca, Switzerland, were just around the corner. After travelling to the event, we first headed out onto the course. The course had steep technical uphills as well as very technical downhills. Monday was the day for track training, picking out the best lines and riding everything cleanly. The next day we started with the Time Trail off. After just over a minute, the race was already history. Unfortunately, I didn't make it into the top 32 that day, which meant I didn't qualify for the eliminator on Thursday.
But first Max, Lucie and I had to find the Season well. Max was the starting driver and had to start from very far back. We were also at a disadvantage anyway because the team normally consists of two boys and one girl. Max was able to make up places despite being stuck in a traffic jam and then handed over to Lucie. She also managed a solid lap. I was the last one out and was very happy with my lap. The lap time was very important for everyone, as it and the individual time trial together meant the starting grid for the XCO on Saturday. For me it was a very good 12th place and therefore the third row for Saturday.
Thursday and Friday were rest days for me and just a bit of relaxed cycling, swimming and cheering. Elias' performance in the XCO was simply incredible and he's now the new European runner-up. A great day for the whole team!
But then things got serious for me the next day: the start was at 12.00 noon. I had a good start, but then got caught up a bit. I took it easy during the lap because I knew that it was going to be a very tough and long race over three laps. My legs were disastrous at the start, but they got better and better from the second lap onwards and I was able to make up place after place. I even finished in the top 10 in just under an hour. Sooo happy with my performance!
Race report Max Ebrecht, U17
The European Championships in Capriasca finally started with the time trial, which I was really looking forward to. After arriving on Sunday, we scrutinised the course in detail on Monday. Even on the very short time trial course, we rode special cornering approaches in order to achieve the highest possible cornering speeds.
At the start of the Time trial I set off at 16:11, in the unloved blazing afternoon heat. The great atmosphere and loud music from the Swedish fans really pushed me up the start climb so that I was able to enter the intermediate descent at high speed. I took the following slippery S-curve really fast - too fast, because I had to brake shortly afterwards to avoid ending up in a hall wall. After that, things went really well again. I deliberately took some risks at the Wiesendrop and on the bridge. I ended up in 28th place and it was exciting to see whether I would make it into the top 64. Unfortunately, more and more riders pushed ahead of me, sometimes only by hundredths of a second. In the end, I only finished 73rd, 41 hundredths of a second off the XCE qualifying time.
The Season was the first race on the big XCO circuit, but not all A-lines were open. After the time trial, we started from 85th place out of 128 teams. In temperatures of around 35 degrees, I took on the responsibility as the start rider in the turmoil of the start with the hope of being able to move up to the front. However, this plan was initially thwarted by a lot of traffic jams at the start, on the climbs and descents. I ran almost all the climbs because it was so tight and the athletes were hindering each other. This allowed me to make up places, which is where my cyclocross experience paid off! The dusty conditions then turned the descents into a blind ride. Nevertheless, I still managed to overtake several riders because there was a traffic jam in the B-lines and I took the A-lines. Overall, I'm happy with the race. I was able to push through without crashing and overtake a good 20 riders in the race.
Crash-free, without collapsing - 28th place in the XCO
The XCO race started at 10 a.m. on Saturday in still quite cool conditions. The course was the same as for the relay, except that this time all the A-lines were open and we had to ride 4 laps, which equates to around 70 minutes of riding time. The times from the relay and the time trial were added together to determine the starting position - mine was 72nd on the grid.
After a slow start, the race finally got underway. On the first lap, I still had to run quite a lot on the climbs, similar to the relay. But I was able to overtake many of my competitors. The second lap went much better, there was finally more or less a clear run. I was able to overtake more and more people and ride with less effort. Things went similarly on the third and fourth laps and I was able to finish in the top 30.
In the end it was a rather disappointing 28th place in the XCO, I had hoped for more before the European Championships. But my performance was good: I overtook 45 competitors, mastered the technically demanding course and didn't have a slump over the long distance. I'm already looking forward to next year and hope that things will be better then.
Most recently Dennis Krimmel was nominated by the BDR for the TFJV in Les Menuires and was able to beat almost all of his competitors in the overall standings in France. You can find the race report here:
>> Allez! Allez! BIKE Junior Team at the TFJV in France
