Poland and Germany dominate Medal Podium at 7th WUC Cycling
The 7th edition of the FISU World University Cycling Championship was held in Tagaytay, Philippines from 16 to 20 March. 92 student-riders (59 men & 33 women) and 33 officials (28 men & 5 women) representing 16 countries from 5 continents competed in four disciplines.
In the women’s Criterion, the competition quickly turned into a solo demonstration of Romy Kasper (GER), second of the women’s tour of Qatar earlier this year, showing her strength with not less than 3 minutes difference over her direct competitors, the two Polish cyclists, i.e. Nikol Plosaj (silver) and Monika Brzena (bronze). In the men’s race, the local athlete Boots Ryan Cayubit (PHI) won the Criterion by one point (19 pts) ahead of Alexander Weifenbach (GER/18 pts) and the Australian surprise, Cyrus Monk.
In the women’s Road Race, Germany’s Romy Kasper won again with an impressive margin leaving silver to Nikol Plosaj (POL) who beat local sprint surprise Salamat (PHI). The 80km race on very hilly terrain saw Kasper demonstrate her power on the volcanic slopes of Tagaytay while dominating the race towards the podium until the final sprint. The men’s 120km race offered an impressive sight to the many spectators gathered in the streets. Cyrus Monk (AUS), bronze medallist in the Criterion, crossed the finish line first ahead of the Batmunkh (MGL) and Weifenbach (GER).
In the women’s Eliminator MTB competition, the final opposed four athletes, Wiedenroth (GER), Turobos (POL), Ainota (JPN) and Lou (CHN). After a good start of the Polish rider, Wiedenroth (GER) undertook a spectacular action to take the lead and kept it until the end, confirming the German delegation’s domination in the women’s competition with three gold medals in three races. She was followed by Turobos (POL) adding another medal to the Polish total while Ainota (JPN) settled for the bronze. In the men’s competition, the podium was shared by Poland, Germany and Japan. As in the previous days, the German athlete Wolf was beaten by the Polish Marcin Kawalec by a few seconds. Maeda (JPN) collected the second medal for Japan, again in bronze.
The last competition race of this championship was the mountain bike cross-country Olympic distance (XCO) on the beautiful course set up in the suburbs of Tagaytay and which will remain after this WUC as a legacy for the local riders. Under close to 40°C, the competition was tough and attended by many local spectators, who came to observe the best student-riders in the world racing around the 5.3km course set up for the occasion – 5 laps for the women, 7 for the men. Like in the previous days, the medals were disputed between Germany and Poland while Japan tried to contest the European nations some medals without any success. In the women’s race, fourth event and fourth gold medal for Germany with Sofia Wiedenroth already winner of the eliminator the previous day. The 21-years old rider left the pack in the first meters never to be seen again by her pursuers. Behind her Alexandra Podgorska (POL) quickly took the best on her teammate Turobos (POL) to claim a silver medal while Turobos, silver medallist of the eliminator completed her collection with a bronze medal this time. In the men’s race, Poland took its revenge on Germany placing two athletes on the first steps of the podium. Kurczab and Kawalec managed their race cooperating together to progressively distance Wolf (GER) with Kurczab taking gold while Kawalec after winning the eliminator on Saturday, added a silver to his collection.