Places 6 and 9 for Keller and Albin at the European Championships

The European Mountain Bike Championships, held in Munich as part of the European Championship, ended with 6th and 9th places for Alessandra Keller and Vital Albin. Both were basically satisfied with what they had achieved.

The women rode their laps at the European Championships in the Olympic Park under inclement weather conditions. Alessandra Keller, competing in the jersey of the Swiss national team, struggled with the difficult conditions after a good start. At the end she even had to fight with cramps and could not intervene in the fight for the medals. Nevertheless Keller finished in a good sixth place as the second best Swiss.

Keller: “Got the maximum out of it”

“The race started very fast and I could keep up well, then the race developed into a real mud fight. I got the maximum out of today and the special conditions. The fact that I finished sixth makes me positive for the upcoming important races”, said Alessandra Keller at the finish. The race was won by Loana Lecomte (FRA) ahead of her compatriot Ferrand Prévot and Dutchwoman Terpstra.

One day before Vital Albin started under dry and therefore totally different conditions for a very fast XCO race. The role of the favorites was clearly distributed: Everyone was looking at the Olympic champion and Tour de France stage winner Tom Pidcock from Great Britain.

Albin tries to attack in the penultimate lap

When Pidcock launched the decisive attack in the third lap, Vital Albin was just in the back of the leading group and was therefore not able to react. Afterwards Albin steadily worked his way to the front and attacked in the penultimate lap.

“I’m satisfied with ninth place so far, because at the beginning of the race I didn’t really find the flow. However, as the race went on, I got better and better. That’s why I also attacked on the second-to-last lap. In the end it didn’t work out, but I can’t blame myself,” said Albin after crossing the finish line. Behind Pidcock, who won gold, Fini Carstensen (DEN) and Filippo Colombo (CH) finished on the podium.