Young GB Sprinters Take on Germany

 

Story posted May 16, 2008

 

A team of young Great Britain Cycling team Olympic Academy sprinters travelled to Dudenhofen in Germany recently for a summer competition under the watchful eye of GB Sprint Coach Iain Dyer. The riders making the trip were World Championship medallists Dave Daniell, Josh Hargreaves, Christian Lyte and Anna Blyth.

 

The competiton, Drei Bahnen Tournee (3 days of racing) takes place at a different track each day. The first day was at Oberhausen, the second at Mannheim (both 333 metre outdoor concrete tracks) and the final one was at Dudenhofen, a 250metre outdoor concrete velodrome.

 

The competition in the men’s races comprised of national Under 23 German team riders (and one Austrian in the lads) plus team GB. The rivals for the Brits included Benjamin Wittman, Tobias Wachter, Sascha Hubner, Paul Kanzler, Gregor Fischer, and Clemens Selzer (Aust).

In the Women’s races, Anna Blyth (above) found herself racing Miriam Welte, Charline Delev, and Sabine Brettschneider. With all the riders having race a lot internationally including the Revolution open, the riders were all pretty familiar with each other.

 

Just like it was for the European Championships last year in Germany, the weather for the racing was very hot and windy which made for some interesting challenges for all the riders. That included avoiding getting  punctures which seemed to be difficult for all concerned.

 

Looking at the results for the first two days, it was a mixed bag for the team with Leeds rider Anna Blyth winning every single event she contested  including the Time Trials. In the Men’s racing however, only Middlesbrough’s Dave Daniell showed he has been able to get to grips with the style of racing on the bigger 333 metre outdoor tracks with two third places over the first two days.

 

With the Germans facing some upcoming selection trials, they are coming into some good form and Brits Chris and Josh were finding things a bit tough. In the Sprint event on day 1, David Daniell only qualified 9th but in the man on man racing, showed he had the craft to go all the way to the minor final where he was third, beating beat one of Germany’s best, Hubner, in the process.  Christian Lyte meanwhile qualified 6th  fastest and Josh Hargreaves qualified 7th.  The men’s winner was Tobias Wachter  from Benjamin Wittman.

 

In the Womens race’s, Anna Blyth won all her races, qualifying fastest with Miriam Welte finishing second and Sabine Brettschneider third.

 

Day two of the racing with temperatures of 30 degrees making everyone sweat a bit saw Anna Blyth keep her excellent record alive by winning all four of her rounds whilst David Daniell qualified better (11.30), 5th, before going on to finish  third after beating Fischer in his minor final. Christian Lyte meanwhile qualified 6th and Josh Hargreaves was 9th qualifying. Winner of the men’s racing after qualifying well was Tobias Wachter who qualified in 10.79.

Final Days Racing
Coming into the final day of racing, the team were hoping the familiarity of racing on a 250m track would work in their favour however German’s Tobias Wacher and Benjamin Wittmann again proved what talents they were in a  class field and a victory eluded the Brits.

 

It was however a better day for the British boys on the smaller track, the same size as the one at Manchester. David Daniell was showing how consistent he can be by scoring a hat trick of third places this time beating team mate Chris Lyte in the minor final.

 

Christian’s fourth place was his best result of the three day series whilst Josh Hargreaves also improved to finish 6th  which was also his best result of the three day series of races. In the major final, local favourite Wittmann pleased the home crowd with a popular win over Wachter.

 

In the Women’s racing, Anna faced a stiffer test today against Welte on her home track. In an upset compared to the preceding days results, German rider Welte qualified fastest and both her and Anna won their first two rounds easily before meeting each other.

 

Miriam came out on top in a foto-finish, but Anna struck back in the final race (a four-up with all the form riders) to win. It wasn't enough to win that day’s overall though and Anna had to be content with second place behind Miriam.

 

It was though a great three days for Anna with 12 wins from a possible 14 and everyone came away from the racing trip with some high quality racing under their belts against strong competition. And while the German riders have already travelled to Frankfurt Oder to prepare for this weekends trials where  selection for the European Championships is on the line, the British team are planning a few more raiding parties to the German Sprintercup events in the coming months to gain more racing experience.