Lukas Baum from Germany wins the men’s junior title of the European Championship. The victory on the Gurten marks the German’s biggest success in his young career. “I prepared well for this event and felt really good during training”, the 18 year-old said after his victory. On the downhill section of the course the Italian Gioele Bertolini was strongest and temporarily took the lead. “I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks, so I waited until the last lap where I could overtake Gioele Bertolini during the climb”, the victorious Baum stated at the finish line. The young Italian already won his second medal in Bern: After winning with the Italian team in the relay on Thursday evening, he now adds silver to gold.
The battle for third was decided in a sprint between Niels Rasmussen from Denmark and Romain Boutet from France. The young Danish won the bronze medal by hair’s breadth. Frank Brückner, coach of the German team, was pleased with the result of his youngsters, four of which finished in the top twenty: “We knew that we had three to four strong cyclists on our team who could make an impact on the race.” Brückner’s colleague and Swiss national coach Bruno Diethelm couldn’t hide the disappointment with the result of his team: “A top ten result was our goal. Unfortunately, we couldn’t deliver today.” Nicolas Fischer, the best Swiss and finishing 15th, looked back on his race: “I could not get into a good rhythm during the first half of the race and found myself with stomach problems; the second half was a lot better.”
Source: press release
Results:
1 Lukas Baum (Ger) 1:12:45
2 Gioele Bertolini (Ita) 0:01:21
3 Niels Rasmussen (Den) 0:01:33
4 Romain Boutet (Fra)
5 Louis Bendixen (Den) 0:01:46
6 Georg Egger (Ger) 0:02:02
7 Neilo Perrin Ganier (Fra) 0:02:17
8 Jan Vastl (Cze) 0:02:22
9 Milan Vader (Ned) 0:02:31
10 Piotr Konwa (Pol) 0:02:46
