The Long Distance medals were won by two favourites: Nikoline Splittorff, Denmark, winner of the Sprint yesterday, and Vojtech Ludvik, Czechia, leader of the IOF World Rankings. Both riders were in front at the mid-race time-check and made good route choices throughout on a day with good riding conditions.
Splittorff, women’s World Ranking leader, is in a class of her own here and won by 2.57 over one of the most experienced riders, Czechia’s Martina Tichovska. Bronze medallist was Ruska Saarela, Finland, 5.42 down on Splittorff’s time. 38-year-old Tichovska was already 2.03 down mid-race, but held her form well through the rest of the course. Splittorff beat the planned winning time by more than 10 minutes!
The riders came through the arena – a large grassy meadow – twice, after 13 and 22 km, with the last section a 4 km loop. Some of the legs on the 26.4 km course were extremely long, requiring great care in route choice, assessing route distance and amount of hill climb in the undulating terrain, to avoid unnecessary loss of time.
Big smile from Nikoline Splittorff after her second gold in two days. Photo: Jakub Kijak/MoonLine Media
Ludvik, 30, enjoyed victory by an even greater margin – 3.13. Silver medallist was the Austrian rider Andreas Waldmann, world-ranked number 11, who has always been best at long distance, and the defending champion Samuel Pokala took the bronze medal this time. He was also in third place mid-race, and second at that stage was André Haga, Finland, 1.39 down. He lost time later and ended fifth. The men’s course over 33.8 km had similar characteristics to the women’s, and Ludvik’s time was just faster than the planned time.
Men’s podium after today’s Long distance. Photo Jakub Kijak/MoonLine Media
In the Junior and Youth classes, three of yesterday’s winners won again today: Iris Aurora Pecorari ITA in W20, Hannes Hnilica AUT in M20 and Radek Lesage CZE in M17.
Tomorrow is Middle Distance race day, with IOF LIVE TV coverage from 9.30 CEST.
Leading results, Long Distance
Women
- Nikoline Splittorff DEWN 94:14
- Martina Tichovska CZE 97:11
- Ruska Saarela FIN 99:56
- Ursina Jaeggi SUI 100:10
- Gabriele Andrasiuniene LTU 100:18
- Cæcilie Christoffersen DEN 101:12
Men
- Vojtech Ludvik CZE 104:06
- Andreas Waldmann AUT 107:19
- Samuel Pokala FIN 107:37
- Jonas Maiselis LTU 107:45
- André Haga FIN 109:30
- Krystof Bogar CZE 110:23
Junior European MTBO Championships gold medallists
W20: Iris Aurora Pecorari ITA by 3:47
M20: Hannes Hnilica AUT by 0:14
European Youth MTBO Championships
W17: Irmante Aleliunaite LTU by 2:42
M17: Radek Lesage CZE by 1:36