European Championships Munich: Lecomte and Pidcock win European Championship title

The thousands of fans in Munich's Olympic Park experienced two completely different mountain bike races at the European Championships. While a shower only briefly cooled the riders down in the men's cross-country competition on Friday evening, the women battled for the European Championship medals on Saturday afternoon in constant rain in deep mud and on slippery meadow descents. For safety reasons, the women were also allowed to bypass the longer Rockgarden on the Olympiaberg. The atmosphere on both days of the mountain bike races was just as great as in the other competitions at the European Championships. The TV ratings* for the MTB races on ARD/ZDF are also impressive:

• Friday ZDF: 2.101 million viewers (16.8 % market share)
• Saturday ARD: 1.724 million viewers (21.3 % market share)

Pidcock in a class of his own

After the Absence of Mathias Flückiger due to a positive doping test the strong Swiss team was missing a medal hope, as Nino Schurter was also not at the start. Initially, the leading group was still relatively large and Max Brandl and Luca Schwarzbauer were right at the front at the start of the European Championship race. On the fourth of eight laps, however, Tom Pidcock made his move and pulled away from the competition within half a lap. The MTB Olympic champion and Alpe d'Huez stage winner rode in a controlled and confident manner to a lead of around half a minute and maintained this advantage to the finish.

Behind them, the Swiss dominated the chasing group of five riders for a while. But by the last lap, the chasing group had thinned out and only Filippo Colombo (SUI), the Dane Sebastian Fini Carstensen and Victor Koretzky (FRA) remained. In the final sprint, Carstensen secured the silver medal for Denmark, while bronze went to the Swiss, who are used to success, along with Colombo. Luca Schwarzbauer, who has always finished in the top 10 in recent World Cup races, was the best German at the European Championships in 10th place, while 22-year-old David List put in a strong performance in Munich in 13th place. The other German European Championship placings: Julian Schelb 21st, Max Brandl 28th and Cape Epic winner Georg Egger in 31st place.

Lecomte benefits from Ferrand-Prévot's chain jam

The women's European Championship race was decided early in the second lap. Until then, the French defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot was almost half a minute ahead of her compatriot Loana Lecomte. But then Ferrand-Prévot's chain fell off the chainring on the climb towards the Olympiaberg and she had to get off her bike. The 30-year-old lost almost a minute until she had fumbled the chain back onto the muddy drivetrain.

After that, the 23-year-old Lecomte was off and running. She rode the European Championship race to a concentrated finish and secured her first international title in the women's elite class in Munich. Silver went to Ferrand-Prévot, who seems to be back in top form just in time for the MTB World Championships in Les Gets next weekend. Anne Terpstra took bronze for the Netherlands ahead of Olympic champion Jolanda Neff. The Swiss women thus took the lead after the Triple triumph at the Tokyo Olympics came away empty-handed at the European Championships in Munich. The three German women finished 17th (Leonie Daubermann), 18th (Nadine Rieder) and 26th (Lia Schrievers).

*Source: AGF Videoforschung in co-operation with GfK / from 3 years of age