Cyclingflash
Junior world cup in Tábor ends in a true thriller after multiple plot twists

Junior world cup in Tábor ends in a true thriller after multiple plot twists

The first World Cup race in Tábor, Czech Republic — the junior men’s event — ended in a real thriller. After an exciting race with multiple scenarios unfolding, it came down to a sprint among four riders. In this sprint, French top talent Soren Bruyère Joumard just edged out the competition.

The cyclocross season has been underway for a while now, but the first World Cup races took a bit longer to arrive. Sunday was finally the day: the first round of the most important points classification took place in Tábor.

It’s been some time since a World Cup round was held in Tábor, but the Czech town remains an absolute classic in cyclocross. It was up to the junior men to kick things off, and the top prospects of the future put on a real cyclocross show.

French Firecracker Start
Soren Bruyère Joumard quickly found his rhythm on the partially frozen, fast yet very tricky course and decided to shake things up in the first lap. The 17-year-old Frenchman—riding for the junior team of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale—immediately made a first break.

Joumard started the second lap with a lead of about five seconds, but at some point he was caught by Giel Lejeune, Italian champion Patrik Pezzo Rosola, and his compatriot Filippo Grigolini, who recently claimed the European champion’s jersey.

Van Lee’s Impressive Comeback
These four riders proved evenly matched, but in the penultimate lap Lejeune made a mistake. The talented Belgian crashed while hopping over the barriers, losing his rhythm completely and was overtaken and dropped by his compatriot Jari Van Lee, who was himself on a remarkable comeback.

The unleashed Van Lee even managed to bridge the gap to the three leaders, so we began the fifth and final lap with four potential winners. In this closing lap, the battle for the lead was intense.

European champion Grigolini won this skirmish and started the sprint first, but was overtaken again by Joumard, who narrowly held off the charging Van Lee for the victory. Grigolini took third place, ahead of his compatriot Rosola. The first Dutch rider was Delano Heeren in sixth place, immediately followed by Noël Goijert.

In the junior women’s race, Barbora Bukovská thrilled the local Czech cycling fans by crossing the finish line first.

The European champion settled a thrilling duel with reigning U19 world champion, French rider Lise Revol. Italian Giorgia Pellizotti—the daughter of well-known former pro Franco Pellizotti—finished third at a safe distance.[/wftk_box]