The first European Championship gold goes to Switzerland - Italy's team disappoints

The Swiss quartet of Marcel Guerrini, Vital Albin, Jolanda Neff and Lars Forster finished the first European Championship competition after exactly 55:36,64 minutes. The Swiss fought a spectacular head-to-head duel with the Dutch for a long time. However, final driver Forster was able to outpace them and secure the gold medal for Switzerland. The Dutchwoman Annemarie Worst had to settle for eighth place in the end. As a reminder: In the team competition, nations must send one woman, one elite rider, one U23 athlete and one junior to the start. The order can be freely chosen.

Behind Switzerland, the French and German teams, who competed as defending champions, completed the podium.

Pallhuber: “We never found our way into the race”

Meanwhile, the relay competition didn't go as planned for Italy's selection. Without the two star bikers Marco Aurelio Fontana and Eva Lechner, the Azzurri had a lot of trouble keeping up with the leaders. After the performances of Luca Braidot and Francesco Bonetto, Lisa Rabensteiner took over in tenth place. The Villandro woman led the Azzurri to eighth place before Gioele Bertolini gained one place at the end and finally crossed the finish line in seventh place. He was 3:14 minutes behind the leaders.

"Unfortunately, we never really found our way into the race. Lisa and Gioele's attempts to catch up came too late in the end," said disappointed national coach Hubert Pallhuber.

The European Championship program will now continue on Friday with the Eliminator races. Here the South Tyrolean hopes rest on Anna Oberparleiter and Maximilian Vieider.

MTB European Championships in Huskvarna (SWE) - Team competition results: 1. Switzerland 55:35,6410 minutes Marcel Guerrini, Vital Albin Switz, Jolanda Neff, Lars Foster

2. France 56:45,022 Victor Koretzky, Axel Zingle, Pauline Ferrand Prevot, Jordan Sarrou

3. Germany 56:51,4830 Georg Egger, Niklas Schehl, Sabine Spitz, Ben Zwiehoff

4. Czech Republic 57:46,0150 Jan Vastl, Richard Holec, Jitka Skarnitzlova, Ondrej Cink 5. Great Britain 57:45,0150 Iain Paton, William Gascoyne, Evie Richards, Grant Ferguson

6. Spain 58:10,3030 Josep Duran Reig, Jofre Cullell Estape, Martin Rodriguez Rocio, Nicolas Carlos Coloma

7. Italy 58:39,2260 Luca Braidot, Francesco Bonetto, Lisa Rabensteiner, Gioele Bertolini

8. Holland 58:15,2680 Milan Vader, Michiel Van Der Hejiden, Marc Bouwmeester, Annemarie Worst

9. Sweden 58:30,2040 Emil Linde, Emil Hedlund, Linn Gustafzzon, Emil Lindgren

10. Norway 58:44,2230 Petter Fagerhaug, Sondre Kristiansen, Elisabeth Sveum, Martin Siggerud

Alexander Foppa / SportNews

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The first European Championship gold goes to Switzerland - Italy's team disappoints

The first decision was made at the European Mountain Bike Championships in Huskvarna, Sweden: Switzerland secured the gold medal in the team competition. Meanwhile, Lisa Rabensteiner and Co. had to make do with seventh place.

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