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Flashback Friday: The first unified, multi-sport European Championships in 2018
The 2018 European Championships were the first of their kind. A plethora of sports held their championships at the same time to draw increased attention and audiences, with cycling joining athletics, swimming, gymnastics, rowing and more sporting disciplines in events mainly held across Glasgow and Berlin.
Cycling itself was split between two countries. The junior and U23 events actually took place in the Czech Republic but the elite events were held in Scotland. This was the inaugural European Cycling Championships too, bringing together the disciplines of road, track, mountain biking and BMX.
Road
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In Brno, Czech Republic, a rider every cycling fan is now familiar with was taking his first steps to make a name for himself after switching from football to cycling. A young Remco Evenepoel won the junior road race for Belgium by over nine minutes after an almost 100km solo breakaway. Even more impressively, it came just two days after he won time-trial gold, beating fellow countryman Ilan van Wilder by 24 seconds.
In the senior men’s road race in Glasgow, a five-man group formed in the breakaway after a crash in the final kilometres: Matteo Trentin and Davide Cimolai (Italy), Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), Wout van Aert (Belgium) and Jesús Herrada (Spain). Trentin managed to outsprint them all on the wet city circuit for his first win after fracturing his spine in a crash at Paris-Roubaix earlier in the season.
In the women’s race, Italy’s Marta Bastianelli beat Dutch defending champion Marianne Vos just as she had done a year prior at the World Championships in Germany. It was a day to remember for 19-year-old Sophie Wright of Great Britain too, having gone on a 40km solo attack after two heart operations.
Ellen van Dijk, meanwhile, won her third of fourth consecutive time-trial golds for the Netherlands, narrowly edging out countrywoman Anna van der Breggen by just two seconds.
Track
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In a surprise to no one, the Netherlands sat atop the medal table on the track, with Great Britain just behind in second. Jeffrey Hoogland, Harrie Lavreysen and Roy van den Berg teamed up to take down France in the team sprint, while Hoogland also won gold in the individual sprint, with Lavreysen riding to bronze.
For Great Britain, Ethan Hayter won gold in the omnium. It was a further double gold in the elimination race, Matthew Walls beating Portugal’s Rui Oliveria on the men’s side, with Laura Kenny topped the standings ahead of Anna Knauer of Germany for the women. The four-woman team of Kenny, Elinor Barker, Katie Archibald and Neah Evans also rode to the team pursuit gold medal, winning by nine seconds over Italy.
MTB
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Double gold awaited Switzerland in the cross-country events. Jolanda Neff dominated from the opening lap to claim her third European mountain bike title by two minutes ahead of Pauline Ferrand-Prevot. Fellow Swiss Lars Forster faced strong competition from Italy’s Luca Braidot on the men’s side, but eventually dropped him to ride clear and win by 24 seconds.
BMX
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Great Britain also shone in BMX Racing. In the men’s event, fellow Brits Kyle Evans and Kye Whyte battled one another for the gold medal with Evans coming out on top, Whyte happy with silver in his first year as an elite. Frenchman Sylvain André completed the podium.
The Netherlands’ Laura Smulders edged out Denmark’s Simone Christensen to defend her title in the women’s race.
The next unified European Championships were held in Munich in 2022, on a four-year cycle like the Olympics and Paralympics. Host nation Germany would top the medal table with 26 golds, with Great Britain and Northern Ireland just behind on 24.
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