With silver for Lea Friedrich and Roger Kluge and bronze for Emma Hinze, the German team experienced a strong evening at the track cycling world championships.
Lea Friedrich fought with the last of her strength, the dethroned Emma Hinze cheered on at the top of her lungs – but the fantastic winning streak of the fast German women came to an end at the track cycling world championships just outside Paris.
Two days after winning the team sprint, the 22-year-old Friedrich lost in two runs in the final against Gros, who succeeded Hinze. The defending champion was defeated by Gros in the semifinals, but secured bronze in the small final against Laurine van Riessen from the Netherlands.
For the German “short-term” specialists, this ended their impressive winning streak. Since 2019 they have been undefeated in the four fast disciplines (sprint, team sprint, keirin, 500 m) at world championships. Friedrich and Hinze have two more gold chances just outside Paris on Saturday in the 500m time trial and on Sunday in the keirin.
“I would have liked to have had the rainbow jersey. In retrospect, I’m also proud of the silver medal,” said Friedrich.
Kluge takes silver with surprise
Veteran Roger Kluge caused a coup from a German point of view. The 36-year-old surprisingly took second place in the points race with 67 points and was only beaten by Dutchman Yoeri Havik (76). Third place went to Belgian Fabio van den Bossche (64).
Silver in the points race in France: Roger Kluge.
“A medal in international title fights is nice for the collection and confirms that I’m not yet to be written off. I’m still driving at a good level,” said Kluge.
For Kluge it was the fifth medal at the track world championships. In 2018 and 2019, together with Theo Reinhardt, he won the title and in 2020 bronze in the two-man team drive, in 2016 silver in the omnium.
Disappointment for European champion Nicolas Heinrich
On the other hand, there was a huge disappointment for European champion Nicolas Heinrich in the 4000-meter pursuit. The 20-year-old experienced a slump in qualifying and was only 18. Gone was the dream of a grand final against the Italian hour record holder Filippo Ganna, who won his fifth title in this discipline and set the next world record in 3:59.636 minutes. Heinrich was a good 19 seconds slower than Ganna in his run.
“It just wasn’t my day. The excitement was missing. It wasn’t like usual. You could tell right from the start that it was laxer,” said Heinrich, who had won the European Championship title in Munich in August and almost was nine seconds faster.