The men's scratch race at the Track Cycling World Championships ended in a very chaotic finish. A sprint was launched one lap too early, and the result was subsequently changed twice.
The scratch was scheduled for forty laps, but because of all the confusion, it was not entirely clear where the finish line was. At the end, it seemed that several riders sprinted prematurely. The German Moritz Augenstein and the Dutchman Yanne Dorenbos kept sprinting for an extra lap and thus secured their medals. However, the Belgian Jules Hesters slowed down afterwards. The race jury later ruled that the 'first' final sprint after forty laps would count for the final medals and made a correction to the results.
So bronze went to Hesters until the Portuguese rider Iuri Leitao lodged a complaint about a 'dangerous maneuver' by the Belgian. The jury agreed and demoted Hesters in the results to sixth place.
Something Hesters found hard to understand in an interview with Sporza. "Leitao crashed into my shoe in the last corner, which catapulted me downwards. Dorenbos appears underneath me and I get hit. I come off my saddle and end up going down. Because of that, they demoted me to sixth place. That cost me a bronze medal. I have no words for it."
"I find it bitter that I’m not at fault. I tried to explain it to the jury, but well. Everyone who talks to me can’t understand it. The medal was taken away from me by a third party who maybe hasn’t even raced themselves. They don’t understand that if someone crashes into you at 60 kilometers per hour, you’re not intentionally impeding anyone. I am being punished for that. It’s hard to understand at this moment."
Augenstein was celebrated as the winner of the scratch, and Yanne Dorenbos took silver for the Netherlands.
UCI Cycling World Championships - Track (Scratch)| Rank | Rider | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||
| 2 | " | |
| 3 | " | |
| 4 | " | |
| 5 | " | |
| 6 | " | |
| 7 | " | |
| 8 | " | |
| 9 | " | |
| 10 | " |
