Harrie Lavreysen has won his second title at the European Track Cycling Championships in Grenchen, Switzerland. The 25-year-old from Brabant won the sprint tournament by beating Pole Mateusz Rudyk in two heats in the final. Lavreysen was part of the team that claimed the gold in the team sprint on Wednesday. On Sunday he will also compete in the sprint part keirin.
Lavreysen is the reigning Olympic and World Champion. At the European Championships, he had only won gold in the sprint once before, in 2021. Last year, Lavreysen dropped the individual parts at the European Championships on the shorter track in Munich. Two months later he became world champion in the sprint for the fourth time in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
Earlier in the day, Lavreysen had been too strong for the Frenchman Rayan Helal in the semifinals, who later took the bronze. On Friday he defeated his training mate Jeffrey Hoogland in the quarterfinals, who will also start on the keirin on Sunday.
Eighth European title
For Lavreysen it was his eighth European title. In addition to the two sprint titles, he was the best on the keirin once and was part of the gold team sprint team five times. At NOS he said he had had a “very good day”: “Yesterday against Jef I had a hard time, but today I had made a good plan and I executed it well. It was two classic sprint stages, in which I show that I’m the fastest.”
For the Dutch team it was the third gold after winning the team sprint and Hoogland’s success in the kilometer time trial. One silver and four bronze medals have also been won so far.