Results/Pics: European Cyclo-Cross Championships 2012

Helen Wyman and Nikki Harris both lived up to their favourites tag as they both made the podium in the Elite Women’s European  Cyclo-Cross Championships at Ipswich’s Chantry Park. We have Live Pictures and results… more on the way

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

The Brits at Ipswich

The Visitors Album — Riders from Europe in Ipswich for the Euro Champs


The Report

Just like 20 years ago when international cyclo-cross racing came to Britain and there was Gold for GB (Roger Hammond), Ipswich saw Britain’s first European Gold medal in cyclo-cross with Helen Wyman winning in a photo finish against Dutch woman Sanna Van Paassen with Nikki Harris third the icing on the cake.

The three medallists take a seat and show off their medals to the media there to report on the event from around Europe. Champion is Helen Wyman (centre) with bronze medallist, Nikki Harris on the right. The Dutch rider Sanna Van Paassen is on the left (Silver).

The Elite women’s race went to form with both Wyman and Van Paassen having already had their duels this season with honours even while Harris too had pushed Wyman all the way in their last race and was expected to be a contender. She didn’t disappoint!

With a big crowd to cheer the home riders on, including former World Championship Silver medallist Louise Robinson, the race quickly got sorted as Wyman, Harris and Sanna Van Paassen drew clear. In the early stages, there was a fourth GB rider, Gabby Day, in the leading group which gave the crowd plenty to cheer about.

Helen Wyman lets out a yell as she realises she’s the champion and how!

As Day faded and was dropped, Wyman and Sanna Van Paassen were having their own battle trying to drop one another and a victim of that in the second half of the race was Harris. From then on it was GB versus Holland and neither was giving an inch. They were so evenly matched but Wyman knew she could beat Van Paassen in an uphill sprint and she did but it was so close.

Even Wyman admits she didn’t know she’d got it until a metre from the line!

After the ceremony, VeloUK spoke to both the leading British riders:

Live Photos

Helen Wyman:

“This is definitely a career highlight… It has been a pretty spectacular week, second in a World cup, the win at Koppenberg and winning here, so it’s pretty exciting. I really really wanted to here today. I wanted to win Koppenberg, that was my goal, and then I knew if I had the form for that, I could carry that on.”

“I actually felt tired at Koppenberg because we’d been to Czech, back to Holland and then back to Czech and then home and then here. I must have slept for eleven hours last night which was ridiculous and I felt petty fresh today.”

How it all began. Helen and Nikki both took the option of lining up on the right of the picture.

“It is the kind of course I feel I can hold my own and Sanna Van Paassen was always the person we would have to beat. Me and Nikki spoke about it and we agreed we had to beat her. So I was trying to make the race hard and I think Nikki sat on so she could stay fresh and do some work and then Sanna Van Paassen attacked us both”.

“I managed to stay with her and she was riding hard and then stopped and I was like, I’m not going through, right now I have another GB rider right behind me and then Sanna Van Paassen started to work hard.”

“I tried to attack her a few times and I just couldn’t shift her. I knew coming into the final that she was going to go first into those off camber corners but I have these amazing challenge tyres that are like a mud outer and a file tread middle so off camber is a piece of cake so there was no way she was going to drop me.”

The tyres Helen explained, are the only pair in the world and they are on her bike… “I feel they made a difference today on a course like this and are the perfect tyre. You can ride the corners superfast because they have a mud tread on the edges and you don’t have the drag on the straights. On a course like this, they are brilliant and hopefully they will put them into production.”

The sun was shining, the autumn colours were brilliant and the crowd was out in force… what a day in Ipswich!

“Coming into that last bit leading to the sprint, I believed on an uphill sprint, I could beat her because Tuesday last week on an uphill leading to a downhill sprint, I had the better of it. So I went for it and the crowd were awesome. They were going wild and screaming so it was like, I have got to win, I have got to win.”

“I have been waiting my entire career to have a home advantage and finally we get one and get to win and they have to dig out the national anthem! It was really exciting that the Women’s race was the main event too and I think there were more people here for our event which is awesome. Hearing them call my name was really cool as I don’t get to race here that often and the times I do are national championships.”

Four riders and three of them were Brits on lap 1 as Helen Wyman forces the pace from Nikki Harris, Van Paassen (Holland) and then Gabby Day. Pretty cool huh!

Helen also showed how much she takes in at events and her rivals performances when explaining that she wasn’t worried about doing Koppenberg when her main rival Van Paassen wasn’t. “She had done the night race last Tuesday as well as me and there she wasn’t as dominant as she was in the first world cup. And you take little confidences from things like that.”

“In the sprint in that event on the Tuesday where we went uphill before the downhill sprint, and on the uphill I was overtaking. I took confidence from the fact that in an uphill sprint, I can beat her. In every little race, even if I don’t win, doesn’t mean I don’t look at everything and see things that I can use. So on a good course like this with home advantage and home crowd, I knew she was beatable. There was a reason she missed the Koppenberg cross with a 6,000 euro prize fund and if that was because she was tired, then I knew I’d have an advantage because I am not.”

Wyman on the front with Nikki Harris in the distance trying to get back to the front.

“I knew she was going to what she did in the sprint because she has done that to me in so many races, come into the last corner first so I knew she was going to do it so I took a completely different line to what I had taken on every other lap knowing I’d come out level with her and then it was full gas.”

“That sort of sprint is the perfect sprint. When I ever I do a road sprint, the only time I win is if I slow everyone down then attack full gas because that is what I am good at.”

Helen also paid tribute to Louise Robinson who was in the race, a veteran and a former World Silver medallist and right in the mix in the race at Ipswich. “I love Louise to bits, she’s awesome and an incredible champion. She led the sport from the moment we had history in our sport, getting silver in the first world championships for women. I have always admired everything she has done.”

“She is a legend and is good she is racing in the UK and can give the younger girls some one to look up to because we can’t race here as we’re busy in worlds cup and so on. She has the skills and ability and if the younger girls can compete with her, maybe that will show them they can compete in Europe too.”

The crowd cheers Wyman on as she and Van Paassen battle it out for Gold a metre out from the line

Nikki Harris: “It would have been nice to have been on the top spot but I was absolutely on the limit from the word go. So I am happy with third, it was the best I could have got.”
“It was such a fast course with very little recovery and so it was full gas and you’d try and take a breather in the corners but then you’d be sprinting out of them. I would have preferred it to have been heavier and harder but it was flat out.”

“The last couple of weeks I have done some heavy races and I think today was a bit of a shock to the system. I felt the Koppenberg cross in my legs today as well. Van Paassen was the only one who didn’t ride whereas Helen and I did and I felt it in my legs. I think most of the other girls probably felt the same. ”

“I’m back into the racing next Saturday though and it’s full on with World Cups and through December it will be race, race, race; so no time for a breather.”

“I had a really good summer and trained hard and am pleased to be getting better results. It is good to race at this level and get results. I have had a good season so far and been chasing the spots on the podium is great and having won once, you want to be winning all the time.”

The crowd atmostphere at the hurdles as the leads race past.

Van Paassen applies the pressure through the woods but can’t shake Wyman.

Elite Women Result

1 Helen WYMAN Great Britain 5 laps in 43:52
2 Sanne VAN PASSEN Netherlands +0:00
3 Nikki HARRIS Great Britain +0:24
4 Christel FERRIER BRUNEAU France +0:50
5 Sanne CANT Belgium +1:14
6 Lucie CHAINEL France +1:26
7 Gabriella DAY Great Britain +1:30
8 Louise ROBINSON Great Britain +2:00
9 Sophie DE BOER Netherlands +2:21
10 Ellen VAN LOY Belgium +2:28
11 Jasmin ACHERMANN Switzerland +2:33
12 Martina MIKULÁŠKOVÁ Czech Republic +3:08
13 Reza HORMES Netherlands +3:26
14 Sabrina SCHWEIZER Germany +3:27
15 Margriet KLOPPENBURG Denmark +3:54
16 Karla ŠTÊPÁNOVÁ Czech Republic +4:48
17 Hannah PAYTON Great Britain +5:11
18 Bethany CRUMPTON Great Britain +6:54

Under 23 Men’s Championship

Mike Teunissen of Holland dominated the Under 23 event and won the sprint for the Gold medal from teammate Corne van Kessell and Loic Doubey of France.

The charge at the start and the Belgium Bioracer jerseys dominate the front row but  Mike Teunissen already has his eyes on Gold.

The Dutch stringing it out on lap 1.

Mike Teunissen on his own early on. The Dutchman was always at the head of the race and fully deserved the win.

Top Brit in the race was Steven James (Hargroves Cycles) gritting his teeth as he tries to get up to the leaders.

Mike Teunissen gets away with the Frenchman Doubey…

With a lap to go, Mike Teunissen has dropped the Frenchman but the race isn’t won yet!

Despite getting caught by half a dozen riders on the final lap, Mike Teunissen still had the strength to see off any challenge from his rivals. What a race!

Under 23 Men Result

1 Mike TEUNISSEN Netherlands 6 laps in 48:19
2 Corne VAN KESSEL Netherlands +0:00
3 Loïc DOUBEY France +0:01
4 Jens ADAMS Belgium +0:02
5 Wout VAN AERT Belgium +0:09
6 Emiel DOLFSMA Netherlands +0:19
7 Clément VENTURINI France +0:22
8 Tim MERLIER Belgium +0:22
9 Toon AERTS Belgium +0:22
10 Michael VANTHOURENHOUT Belgium +0:22
11 Wietse BOSMANS Belgium +0:23
12 Karel HNÍK Czech Republic +0:23
13 Quentin JAUREGUI France +0:26
14 Vojt?ch NIPL Czech Republic +0:27
15 Gianni VERMEERSCH Belgium +0:31
16 Laurens SWEECK Belgium +0:45
17 Luca BRAIDOT Italy +0:59
18 Michael BOROÅ  Czech Republic +1:07
19 Tijmen EISING Netherlands +1:14
20 Lars FORSTER Switzerland +1:14
21 David VAN DER POEL Netherlands +1:14
22 Yannick MAYER Germany +1:18
23 Michael SCHWEIZER Germany +1:36
24 Gert-Jan BOSMAN Netherlands +1:40
25 Steven JAMES Great Britain +1:45
26 Fabian LIENHARD Switzerland +1:54
27 Stan GODRIE Netherlands +2:11
28 Ben SUMNER Great Britain +2:11
29 Bryan FALASCHI Italy +2:16
30 Jakub SKÁLA Czech Republic +2:23
31 Hugo ROBINSON Great Britain +2:31
32 Lukas MÃœLLER Switzerland +2:38
33 Johannes SIEMERMANN Germany +3:18
34 Felix DRUMM Germany +3:18
35 Toni BRETSCHNEIDER Germany +3:43
36 Andrew HARGROVES Great Britain +3:54
37 Dylan PAGE Switzerland +4:22
38 Jack CLARKSON Great Britain +4:34

 

Junior Men’s Championship

An easy win for Mathieu Van Der Poel as he rode away from this rivals on lap 1 and was never caught

The mad sprint for position at the first corner starts as soon as the gun goes in the Junior race.

An lap after that start, and van der Poel is already well clear.

 Jake Womersley was GB’s leading rider in the Junior race.

Van Der Poel shows his skills at bunny hopping the planks on the climb.

The sprint for the Silver medal was a close tussell with the Frenchman  Russo getting the verdict.

… tears then flowed from Peeters of Belgium was was third.

Russo (Silver) Van Der Poel (Gold) and Peeters (Belgium)

Junior Men Result
1 Mathieu VAN DER POEL Netherlands 5 laps in 41:25
2 Clément RUSSO France +0:31
3 Yannick PEETERS Belgium +0:31
4 Martijn BUDDING Netherlands +0:38
5 Nicolas CLEPPE Belgium +0:43
6 Gioele BERTOLINI Italy +1:03
7 Kobe GOOSSENS Belgium +1:12
8 Thomas JOSEPH Belgium +1:25
9 Quinten HERMANS Belgium +1:47
10 Richard JANSEN Netherlands +1:48
11 Karel POKORNÝ Czech Republic +1:52
12 Marco KÖNIG Germany +1:53
13 Adam ?OUPALÍK Czech Republic +1:53
14 Jake WOMERSLEY Great Britain +1:54
15 Ward VAN LAER Belgium +1:55
16 Lukas MEILER Germany +1:56
17 Elie GESBERT France +1:59
18 Benoit COSNEFROY France +2:03
19 Manuel MÃœLLER Germany +2:04
20 Dominic GRAB Switzerland +2:13
21 Simon VITZTHUM Switzerland +2:18
22 Jack RAVENSCROFT Great Britain +2:19
23 Stijn CALUWÉ Belgium +2:55
24 Bjorn VAN DER HEIJDEN Netherlands +3:00
25 Adrian AUERBACHER Germany +3:01
26 Roman LEHKÝ Czech Republic +3:02
27 Adam KING Great Britain +3:06
28 Harry FRANKLIN Great Britain +3:06
29 Billy HARDING Great Britain +3:31
30 Jan VASTL Czech Republic +3:38
31 Justin RUDOLPH Germany +3:47
32 Matthew HARGROVES Great Britain +3:56
33 Marco ZANELLA Italy +4:05
34 Dominik VRÁNA Czech Republic +4:35
35 Raphael GAY France +4:58
36 Giulio FRANZOLIN Italy +5:11

 

 

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

Other Results on VeloUK (including reports containing results)

Other News on VeloUK

Tags: , , , ,