Nancy Scott’s senior women’s silver and Euan Busfield’s junior men’s bronze helped Great Britain and Northern Ireland finish the championships with further podium success, including team bronze in the senior women’s and youth events.
While the uphill and trail specialists held their races on Friday and Saturday, the final day of the European Off-Road Championships on Sunday (June 7) saw classic up-and-down racing for juniors and seniors. Adrian Stott reports.
The 13.1km long 825m climb for the seniors and the 5.8km 325m climb for the juniors were designed to test both ascent and descent skills.
Men under 20 are first, followed by women under 20.
U20 men
After an initial stretch outside the city, Britain‘Ewan Busfield was in a group with France’s Basile Astier and Yannick Memheld as they hit the climb.
2.5km time trial, France‘Astier led from Great Britain‘Bassfield was three seconds back with Yannick Memheld, joint winner of Friday’s uphill race, in third, 20 seconds back.
At 3.5km, Astier opened in 17:21, 20 seconds ahead of Memheld in 17:41, who in turn edged Busfield in third in 18:01. Also in contention was Norwegian Aron Rodal Haugen, who was fourth.
These positions were to remain unchanged as Astier took the title in 23:58, 39 seconds ahead of compatriot Memheld, with Busfield trailing Heugen in a superb bronze medal battle.
France won the team gold comfortably ahead of Italy.
Supporting Busfield, Ben Hodson and Lachlan Thomas in 12th and 13th with Adam Bentham in 18th secured team bronze for GB & NI.
U20 Women
Julia Erle, Friday’s bronze medalist‘race to the top, led from the start and dominated the race.
Topping out at 2.5km in 11:21, Erle took a 30-second lead over a group that included Hungary.‘and Agota Szabo, Italians Licha Ferrari and Martina Gisalberti, Czech Anna Kinklova and G.B.‘Nancy Corey.
Between the next 3.5km time point, several athletes appeared to have gone off course, resulting in repositioning.
Erle led from Chabo, Switzerland‘Rachel Good and Spain‘Sofia Rubio is now third and fourth.
Ferrari, Corrie, Kynclova: Friday’s joint champion‘The race up the hill and Gisalbert seemed to suffer the most from their diversion and although back on track fell back from the field.
Earle stayed strong on the fast descent into town to win the gold medal in 28:21, adding to the bronze medal he picked up on Friday.‘above. The German, who is also talented in track and cross country, again shows her versatility.
Szabo won silver for Hungary in 29:09, holding off Spain‘s Rubio, who ran 29:16.
Isla Pastor only made the top 10 in 9th place in 31:34 to lead Team GB home.
Constance Geneson was 15th in 31.34. Corey, perhaps wondering what might have been, rallied after his misfortune to finish 22nd in 32:17 with Grayhag Turner 36th in 33.39.
Senior men
The third race of the day saw competitive racing as Spain‘Andreu Blanes and Dominique Rolli, Swiss, along with Germany‘s Lukas Ehrle, led the initial charge out of town.
Rolli led Italy in 9:47 at 2.5km‘Isako Costa at 9:54 in 2nd and Sweden‘s Petter Engdahl, silver medalist from Friday‘uphill race, third in 9:54 in a tie with Spain’s Yan Torella.
With 6km to go, Engdahl was two seconds ahead of Raleigh, with Torella now in third.
Matt Knowles led the Brits in 12th, with Oscar Suboh-Symons 23rd.
Spain, Italy and Switzerland, all with three runners in the top 15, were in close contention for the team medals.
On the long final descent to Kamnik, Torella made a decisive move to drop Engdahl, with Roli still hanging on. He maintained his charge and eased away to take a decisive victory in 1:00:09.
Roley took the silver, a minute back in 1:01:03. Engdahl added to his extensive podium finish, taking the bronze in 1:01:48. Cesare Maestri finished fourth, leading the Italians to team gold six points clear of Switzerland, with Spain in third.
Knowles led the British team in 15th place with a time of 1:03:48. Oscar Suboh-Simons was 22nd in 1:04:45. Tom Wood was 36th in 1:07:17 and Finn Lydon, a late replacement for the injured Tom Hylton, was 46th in 1:09:22.
Senior women
The final race of the morning saw the senior women up the hills.
After the initial climb to 2.5 km, Scout Adkin, France‘The leaders were Nelly Clement, Caroline Kite from Norway and Hanna Gröber from Germany.
Great Britain, along with Naomie Lange, Nancy Scott and Elle Twentyman, rounded out the top 10.
Groeber put his foot down on the next descent and by the 3.5km time point led the trio of Adkin, Clement and Scott by almost 30 seconds.
Italy, Switzerland, Great Britain and Italy were all rallying well for their teams.
At 6km, Groeber opened up a 25 second gap in 32:30, with Scott now a clear second in 32:55. Clement was third in 33:11 and Adkin was fourth in 33:31.
Groeber, who was seventh in Friday’s hill climb, extended his lead on a long comeback descent that looked like the winning margin. Scott and Clement battled for the other spots on the podium, with Adkin fourth.
A jubilant Groeber finished in 1:09:41, a full 90 seconds ahead of Scott, who held on for an excellent silver, holding off the challenge of the experienced Clement by seven seconds, 1:11:07 to 1:11:14.
Adkin finished fourth in 1:12:56.
In an exciting team battle, Switzerland and Spain both finished with 27 points. The Swiss won by having the third highest placed runner.
Great Britain waited agonizingly for their third counter as Lange finished 23rd in 1:18:00, ahead of France’s third runner, to take the team bronze medals. Twentyman closed 27th in 1:20:34.
Overall, it was a successful championship for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team. Individually they won two golds, one silver and one bronze, one team gold and two team bronzes. There were also promising performances from athletes who earned their first GB vests.
Full results here.
