The Road Junior and Under 23 European Championships finished today in Zlin (Czech Republic) with the last two races in the Men’s category.
The Junior race (167 starters from 38 countries) was literally dominated by the Belgian talent Remco Evenepoel who rode solo for approximately 90 kilometres, winning a second European title after the Time-Trial awarded on Friday.
At the end of the first eleven laps at 10.8 kilometres, Remco Evenepoel made a decisive breakaway together with the Spaniard Carlos Rodriguez. The two attackers took a good lead straightaway on the peloton which lost several riders on the difficult Zlin city circuit.
In the second lap, Rodriguez struggled to keep up the pace set by Evenepoel who began to ride like he was in an individual Time-Trial and got even further ahead of his opponents to finally cross the finish line 9’44” ahead of the chasing group, followed by the Swiss Alexandre Balmer who won the silver medal beating the Spaniard Carlos Rodriguez, third at 9’46”.
The start of the race for the Under 23s, with 159 riders from 36 countries was particularly fast. After just over forty kilometres, in the fourth of the thirteen laps, four riders broke away: Alexys Brunel (France), Hugo Nunes (Portugal), Michele Corradini (Italy) and Antoniio Barac (Croatia) who joined them a few kilometres later on. The chasing peloton only allowed them a slight lead. At approximately 60 kilometres from the finish, the Frenchman Brunel attacked but was caught up 20 kilometres after by the best group.
Immediately after the grouping together, three other riders broke away from the peloton: the Italian Luca Covili, the Frenchman Damien Touze and the Hungarian Márton Dina. The three riders were then caught up by Aurélien Paret-Peintre (France), Fernando Barcelo (Spain), Marc Hirschi (Switzerland), who returned to the race after a change of bike following a mechanical problem and Adam Toupalik (Czech Republic).
After the ringing of the bell, the Swiss Hirschi broke away but was caught up by the Spaniard Fernando Barcelo and the Frenchman Victor Lafay.
The closely contested sprint was won in the photofinish by Hirschi over Lafay. Barcelo came third.
Italy finished first in the European Championships medals table with two gold medals, one silver and two bronzes.
The Elite Road European Championships will take place in Glasgow (Great Britain) from 5 to 12 August.
Information and results #EuroRoad18 – click here
