The German foursome had to wait a long time for a medal. Once the parade discipline of German train drivers, the podium has mostly been a long-term goal in recent years. The riders around Henning Bommel showed yesterday evening at the UCI Track World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico, that the continuous work pays off. In the end, the German foursome came in third. And in an impressive manner. While the teams from Australia and Switzerland took the first two places in the grand final, Bommel, together with Maximilian Beyer, Theo Reinhardt and Nils Schomber, managed to catch the Spanish four in the small final shortly before the end of the race.
After winning bronze in the team time trial, Theo Reinhardt also achieved a respectable eleventh place in the men's points race. The victory went to the Russian Kirill Sveshnikov. In the women's scratch race , Xiao Juan Diao of Hong Kong secured the win.
But it wasn't just the endurance specialists who put in strong performances on the first day. The sprinters also impressed. In the absence of German sprint stars Maximilian Levy, Robert Förstemann, René Enders, and Kristina Vogel, who are currently preparing for the World Championships in Cali, Colombia, Joachim Eilers from Chemnitz, along with Erik Balzer and Max Niederlag, secured second place in the team sprint. Only the Dutch trio was faster. The British team finished third.
In the women's team sprint, Miriam Welte finished ninth with Gudrun Stock. Victory went to the Chinese duo.