2024-09-26 09:27:23
Bulgaria took 16th place in its debut participation in the mixed relay at the World Road Cycling Championships in Zurich.
Martin Papanov, Emil Stoynev, Yordan Petrov, Ivana Tonkova, Petya Minkova and Gergana Stoyanova finished in 12:36.38 minutes behind the champions from Australia. When the baton was handed over, Papanov, Stoynev and Petrov were in 15th place, but at the second post, where the women rode, Bulgaria was overtaken by the refugee team riding under the umbrella of the International Cycling Union. However, there was an irregularity at the start of the refugees, which was initially not reported by the judges, and it is possible that when the final results are announced, the Bulgarian team will return to the 15th position out of a total of 20 participating teams.
The fate of the gold medal was decided by less than a second. Team Australia (Jay Wine, Ben O’Connor, Michael Matthews, Grace Brown, Brodie Chapman and Ruby Roseman-Gannon) finished in 1 hour, 12 minutes and 52.28 seconds. The silver medals went to the German team (Marco Brenner, Miguel Heidemann, Maximilian Schachmann, Franziska Koch, Liane Lippert and Antonia Niedermayer), which was slower on the 53.7-kilometer course by only 0.85 seconds.
The bronze went to the Italian team (Edoardo Afini, Filippo Gana, Mattia Cattaneo, Elisa Longo Borghini, Soraya Paladin and Gaia Realini).
For the Australian Grace Brown, this is the second title since the beginning of the world championship. She also won the women’s individual time trial, adding those honors to her Olympic gold in the event from Paris.