Decorated as a Tokyo Olympic champion, Mieke Kröger, who was born in Bielefeld and lives in Hürth, is traveling to the Track Cycling World Championships in France. Her biggest competitor: the roommate.
The goal is clear: track cyclist Kröger, team Olympic champion and individual European champion, is striving for gold at the World Championships. After the end of the winning streak of the heavily changed German four-man team at the World Championships in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Paris, France), the motivation should now be even greater in the one-on-one pursuit (Saturday, October 15, 2022, from 5:30 p.m.). be bigger for the 29-year-old.
Roommate Brauße as competition for Kröger?
Kröger, who won gold in the one-on-one pursuit and her first major individual title at the European Championships in August, could meet her roommate Franziska Brauße (Metzingen) in the final. “My strongest competitor is probably Franzi,” said Kröger beforehand.
With the race on Saturday, a mammoth program from Kröger comes to an end – after their starts at the European Championships in Munich in August, at the road world championships in September in Australia and now at the next highlight in Paris.
And yet Kröger didn’t have enough afterwards either: “I’ve decided to ride my bike back to Cologne. There’s still something in the tank. I don’t know if I can do it. Maybe I’ll get on the train too.”
Kröger and Brauß organize time trial handlebars for Nigerians
But before that there is probably another appointment for Kröger and Brauße: a session with the women’s team from Nigeria on Sunday. Because the African women rode their track bikes with road handlebars, Kröger and Brausse organized professional time trial handlebars for the Nigerian women’s team.
“Franzi and I found that in Roubaix [WM 2021, d. Red.] so cool that the Nigerians were there. Then we saw her again in Glasgow. There they drove the team pursuit with the points bikes. So we thought, ‘It can’t be like this. We’ll get them some time trial handlebars,” Kröger explained the action.
Born in Bielefeld, she added: “Maybe we’ll go out on the track together on Sunday and give them a few tips. We think it’s really courageous that they’re represented here.” And maybe Kröger will then go into this loose bonus unit as a world champion.
