Successful European Championships for Leopard Pro Cycling

The European Championships in Plouay are done and dusted. For Leopard Pro Cycling, no less than nine riders were active last week, resulting in attacking races, a top ten finish and even a win!

Recap
The Europeans started for Leopard Pro Cycling last Monday with the U23 Time Trial championships, were both Miguel Heidemann (Germany) and Filip Maciejuk (Poland) were active. Both riders did a solid race, but were not able to make an impact as they set the respectively 11th and 17th best time. Not a shame as the top three spots on the day were taken by (soon to be) WorldTour riders. Going two days into the future, it was now Szymon Rekita who was up against tough competition. The Pole took the start in the Men's Elite Road Race, where he rode active and could be noticed on live broadcast by attacking in the late final. Unfortunately, the move didn't stick and Szymon finished in the main group, behind race winner and former Leopard-rider Giacomo Nizzolo.

At the U23 Road Race Championships on Thurday, no less than seven Leopard Pro Cycling riders were part of the peloton: Colin Heiderscheid, Arthur Kluckers, Misch Leyder, Cédric Pries (all Luxembourg), Emil Lindgren (Sweden), Filip Maciejuk (Poland) and Mauro Schmid (Switzerland). The day started with the traditional early breakaway, which took about two minutes advantage. From the back, a big counter attack of 18 riders took place and they bridged to the front. From this group five riders went clear again and because the peloton started chasing too late, they never saw three of them back. The Norwegian Jonas Hvideberg took the European title just in front of an approaching bunch, were Colin Heiderscheid crossed the line in fourth and thus eighth on the day. Also Arthur Kluckers (13th), Emil Lindgren (31st) and Filip Maciejuk (52nd) were part of the main group.

European Champion
It is always nice to end the week with a bang, and Miguel Heidemann did just that. Together with Justin Wolf, Michel Heßmann, Lisa Brennauer, Lisa Klein and Mieke Kröger, he formed the German Mixed Relay team. What first looked to become a thrilling battle between Germany and Switzerland, ended up to be a comfortable win for the Germans as they needed 26 seconds less to complete the course. It meant that Leopard's Miguel Heidemann was allowed to pick up his gold medal on the podium moments later, being an official European Champion for the coming year!

Next race?
06.09 | Tour du Doubs (UCI 1.1)

Photographers
(c) Cassandra Donne & Directvelo

Colin Heiderscheid, 8th at the U23 Road Race

"I had a clear plan in mind, which was all about saving energy during the race and fully focus on the final sprint. Thanks to my Luxembourgish team mates, I was able to stay in front the whole race, without catching any wind. Luckily, we still caught most of the breakaway riders back, so that we were able to go for a top result. A special thank you to Arthur, for helping me getting into a good position for the final push as the last lap was really hectic. I timed my sprint maybe a bit too late, but all in all I am happy with the eighth place."