He fell ill before going to the home of the competition, but we hope he will start and be competitive. At the European Championship (EC) in the Belgian cities of Zolder and Hasselt, in the main start – a 222.8-kilometer group race for the elite – Pro Tour driver Emīls Liepiņš is also going to start as part of the Latvian team, but there will be no other top riders Tom Skujiņš and Krista Neilanda. A group trip for the elite will take place on Sunday.
Skujins from Lidl-Trek and Neiland of Israel PremierTech teams will not start, because they have to be in their teams’ compositions in other competitions. General Secretary of the Latvian Cycling Federation (LRF) Tom Marks For days explained the situation. “The European Championship is at a time when there are no so-called ‘selection windows’, and the managers of the teams of the two riders we represent are telling them to compete in the Pro Tour races in Canada this weekend. The European Championship has not yet acquired the status that there is no other top-level competition taking place at that time. For the athletes you have to obey the interests of your teams first.” For this reason, a number of the world’s leading cyclists will not compete and the competition will not be nearly as serious as in the Olympic Games or the World Championships. Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar of Slovenia is also set to compete in the GP races in the Canadian cities of Quebec and Montreal at the weekend and will then focus on the start of the world championship. Belgian Olympic champion Remko Evenepool is also preparing for the WC, which will start on September 21 in the Swiss city of Zurich. Skujiņš and Neilands will be part of the Latvian team in the WC in Switzerland.
Read the whole article in newspapers Day in the issue of Friday, September 13! If you want to continue reading the newspaper in printed form, you can subscribe to it+
2024-09-14 07:00:39