Cycling: The women brought us two medals on the second day of the European Road Cycling Championships in Alkmaar. Lisa Klein won silver in the elite class after Hannah Ludwig had previously won gold in the U23.
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Hannah Ludwig dominates the U23 time trial
after on Day #1 of the European Road Bike Championships already won silver for the mixed relay, the BDR can celebrate the first gold medal on the second day. The only 19 year old Hannah Ludwig won the 22,4 kilometer individual time trial in the U23 class - and that clearly! At the end of their impressive ride over the winding course of Alkmaar, the time stopped at 29:20 minutes. Hannah Ludwig was a whopping 38 or 40 seconds faster than that Maria Novolodskaya from Russia and Elena Pirrone from Italy. However, she only found out about this at the finish. "My speedometer broke. I had no idea how fast I was going.” Luckily it didn't do her any harm. countrywoman Dorothea Heitzmann finished 15th. The two Swiss women Lara Krahemann and Fabienne Buri finished the time trial in 17th and 20th place.
EM preparation in Switzerland
Hannah Ludwig crowned her still young career with her European Champion title. First she received a professional contract with Canyon SRAM Racing for 2019 before she finished fourth in the German Championship - and that in the elite. She owes her success at the European Road Bike Championships in Alkmaar to her hard preparation. In the past few weeks, Hannah Ludwig has been in Switzerland to train specifically for this competition.
Hannah Ludwig:
"I still can't believe it. Craziness! In my first year in the U23s, the title. I'm so happy. The course was great. For the first few kilometers I still managed to keep my strength down. We had a tailwind there. But then I went full throttle. Luckily the wind was much better than yesterday. He came more from the front and wasn't as strong."
#EuroRoad19 – Women U23 Time Trials:
🥇Hannah Ludwig 🇩🇪
🥈Maria Novolodoskaia 🇷🇺
🥉Elena Pirrone 🇮🇹
📰 Full results 👉 https://t.co/4hu6DmpYaX pic.twitter.com/lhVhxsDRTu— UEC Cycling (@UEC_cycling) August 8, 2019
Lisa Klein was just slower than Ellen Van Dijk
After the U23, it was the turn of the women's elite class in Alkmaar. Here, too, the German medal hopes have been fulfilled. Lisa Klein won silver and only had to face dominance by Ellen Van Dijk give up. The Dutchwoman was crowned European time trial champion for the fourth time in a row. In the end, Lisa Klein was 30 seconds short of a big triumph. She will be happy about it anyway, because the distance to the bronze rank of Lucinda Brand is a whopping 22 seconds. The second German starter, Mike Kroeger, finished sixth, 67 seconds down. Austria Anna kiesenhofer finished fifth. In the end, she was only eleven seconds short of bronze.
2x silver within 24 hours
Silver seems to be Lisa Klein's color at the European Road Bike Championships in Alkmaar. Yesterday - not even 24 hours ago - she won the silver medal in the mixed relay. Tomorrow she will be in the eight-man squad for the road race – and as we all know, all good things come in threes.
Lisa Small:
“It was my first international time trial in the elite. I'm happy with the silver medal. It was still a long way to Ellen. For me personally it was a very difficult track. But I'm already looking forward to the next time trials, which will look a little different, where there's also a swing hill, more curves, a bit of a change of rhythm."
Silver medal to Lisa Klein in the women's elite ITT!
9th to @BarnesAlice
13th to @GafiRotem
Congratulations ladies! 👏🏼👏🏼@UEC_cycling #Euroroad19 pic.twitter.com/6LaZRddd7E— CANYON//SRAM Racing (@WMNcycling) August 8, 2019