Friday, October 18, 2024 at 7:22 PM
Sebastian Mora has won gold in the points race at the Track Cycling World Championships. The Spanish experienced rider defeated home rider Niklas Larsen and Dutchman Philip Heijnen. Heijnen, who had a very good day, even had sight of gold for a long time. Belgian Fabio Van den Bossche finished fifth and just missed out on a medal.
In any case, Heijnen started the points race very well. The Dutchman immediately took full advantage in the first intermediate sprint. As a result, he was at the top of the World Cup section for a while. He had to hand that lead to the American Peter Moore, who took a lap. However, that was immediately the signal for Heijnen to light the fuse. Heijnen went for a lap, but many favorites saw the danger and neutralized the attack.
Heijnen has very good legs
Home rider Niklas Larsen hit the target. The Dane continued after a won intermediate sprint and apparently went around easily. Larsen, one of the top favorites beforehand, thus became the new leader. His opponents saw the danger, after which six went around. Also Heijnen and Van den Bossche. However, Larsen had particularly good legs, he immediately went around for a second time. The Japanese Yoko Kojima and the American Moore also did that.
Heijnen and Van den Bossche in pictures – photo: Cor Vos
Halfway through the race we got three riders with two winning laps, followed by Heijnen. Van den Bossche was in ninth place after 75 laps. Heijnen was unstoppable, because 65 laps from the end, Heijnen – together with Sebastián Mora – took another lap. The 24-year-old rider, who normally competes for Parkhotel Valkenburg, became leader of the points race again.
Exciting ending
Then we had to wait a while for a new attack attempt. That eventually came from Larsen, who continued with Van den Bossche. The two took up no-time one lap, after which Larsen became leader and Van den Bossche regained sight of the medals. So Heijnen still had to collect a few points in the absolute final, then gold was still possible. These were very exciting final laps.
It seemed like it would be a duel between Larsen and Heijnen, but nothing could be further from the truth. The cunning Mora used all his experience to speed away in the final laps. The Spaniard, who had classified well, ultimately won the intermediate sprint. That was enough to take the gold by one point. In the end, the silver went to Larsen, Heijnen finished third. Van den Bossche finished fifth and thus missed out on a medal.
