The 2017 edition of the Mountain Bike European Championships in Darfo Boario Terme (Italy) ended with wins by Florian Vogel (Switzerland) in the Men’s Elite and the Ukrainian, Yana Belomoina (Women’s Elite).
For four days, the northern Italian city located in the heart of the stunning Valle Camonica, was the Mountain Bike capital with 383 riders from 35 countries racing to win the nine titles on offer, four of which went to Switzerland, who dominated the event with a total of seven medals out of six events.
The Team Relay was the opening race of the competition with the victory of the Swiss riders, Filippo Colombo, Joel Roth, Linda Indergand, Alessandra Keller and Andri Frischknecht. The Swiss team won in 46” ahead of Denmark (Carstensen, Andersen, Bohe, Andreassen and Degn) and Italy (Kerschbaumer, Teocchi, Zanotti, Tovo and Colledani), third in 1’15”.
The Men’s Eliminator was won by the Frenchman, Titouan Perrin Garnier who triumphed in a particularly hard fought battle against the two great favourites of the previous day: the Austrian, Daniel Federspiel and the Dutch rider, Jeroen Van Eck. However, in the Women’s races the forecast was correct with the win by the Swiss, Kathrin Strinemann beating Barbora Prudkova (Czech Republic) and Anne Terpstra (Netherlands).
In the Juniors races, the Austrian, Laura Stigger and the Spaniard, Joffre Cullell confirmed what they had shown in the main international events this year by winning their respective races.
Accurate prediction in the Women’s Under 23s with the Swiss, Sina Frei standing on the highest step of the podium. In a major showdown, she beat her compatriot, Alessandra Keller and the Dutch rider Anne Tauber.
Italian win in the Men’s Under 23s with Gioele Bertolini and Nadir Colledani on the first two steps of the podium, ahead of the Dane, Simon Andreassen who came third.
The Women’s Elite event was totally dominated by the Ukrainian rider, Yana Belomoina who won in a solo sprint beating the Swiss rider, Linda Indergand and the Norwegian, Gunn-Rita Dahle. No luck for the French rider, Pauline Ferrand Prevot who had to give up second place due to a puncture on the last lap.
The Men’s race was particularly exciting especially in the final, with a thrilling head to head between the Swiss rider, Florian Vogel and the Frenchman, Julien Absalon who after the fall of the Spaniard, Valero, battled against each other resulting in a win by the Swiss rider. Third place went to the German, Manuel Fumic.
Results and info - click here
