European Championships Tàbor

Cyclo-cross championships have a long tradition in Tabor, ast many worldcup races and above all three world championships have been held here. The sports complex in Tábor on the outskirts of the city is lined with more or less impersonal prefabricated concrete blocks, which initially irritate inexperienced spectators. But thanks to their friendliness and good organisation, the Czech organisers have managed to organise a successful cyclo-cross festival on this area close to the city centre.

And so it is the European UEC Championships this year that once again called the Cross Elite to the Bohemian region. Unlike the World Championships, where ice and snow dominate the races due to seasonal factors, late autumn conditions prevailed this time.

Mathieu van der Poel invincible

While world champion Wout van Aert refused to participate and instead went to Spain for a two-week training camp, his big rival Mathieu van der Poel had arrived with clear ambitions for the title. The Dutchman had the best memories of Tabor, having been able to win his first world championship title in the elite category here.

From the very first lap, the Dutch national champion left no doubt about his ambition to win. At the beginning of the first lap van der Poel took the lead and tore the field apart. In the beginning his compatriot Lars van der Haar was able to keep up with him, but he had to realize that there was no chance of winning the title again on this day.

Van der Poel quickly broke away and achieved a relatively lonely and safe solo victory. Lars van der Haar did his laps similarly well and won the silver medal. Behind the two Dutchmen, a large mixed group had found themselves from which Toon Aerts, defending champion in the sprint against his fellow countryman Michael Vanthourenhout, won the bronze medal at the end.

Sanne Cant victorious

Recently, the world champion has regularly been beaten by her Dutch rival Maud Kaptheijns. It almost seemed as if Cant was beginning to doubt herself.

After she had to ake a pass on her start at the Koppenberg due to illness, Cant showed her old form again in Tabor. For a long time, Sanne Cant, Lucinda Brand and Annemarie Worst from the Netherlands, as well as Alice Maria Arzuffi from Italy, fought a close foursome.

First the U23 World Champion Worst had to leave the leading group, then Arzuffi also dropped back. So Cant ended up on the finishing straight with Lucinda Brand. Contrary to the assumption of many observers, Cant was able to win the sprint against Brand, which was actually regarded as a strong sprinter, and won her third European championship title.

Controversial sprint victory

In the men’s U23 category, a larger group of men determined the race for a long time. It looked as if british rider Tom Pidcock, could win the title in his first year in the U23. But twice the hurdles were fatal to the young talent. However. Pidcock always managed to catch up with the leaders.

In the end, Pidcock and former U23 World Champion Eli Iserbyt came together for the sprint on the finishing straight. And this sprint should provide a lot of discussion afterwards. Iserbyt forced the British, who was actually much faster, towards the barriers and blocked the British with two lane changes.Pidcock protested accordingly but the jury did not agree and so Iserbyt was able to slip over the jersey of the European champion. The bronze medal went to the Dutchman Sieben Wouters.

In the women’s U23 category, defending champion Chiara Theocchi was able to take on the trophy again. The Italian took control of the race right from the very beginning, but was initially confronted with two strong opponents, Ceylin Alvarado and Yara Kastelijn. While Yara Kastelijn ran out of strength towards the end of the race, Alvarado was able to keep pace with the defending champion and had a good chance of winning the title until a fall in the last lap robbed the Dutch woman of all her chances.

While Ceylin Alvarado crossed the finish line close to tears in thankless fourth place, the defending champion was delighted to see another gold medal. Behind Teocchi Laura Verdonschot from Belgium, who lost the sprint against the new European champion, won the silver medal ahead of Czech Nikola Noskova.

Swiss champion Loris Rouiller won his first international title in the junior category, ahead of local hero Tomas Kopecky and British rider Ben Tullet.