Freeweelin’ website reports: Fresh off strong results in the Irish National Champs the previous weekend in Traction Woods, Cork, both riders looked to carry that form into the European Champs under the watchful eye of Team Manager Garreth McKee.Congratulations to @leeharvey14 and @nathan_kurensky1 for great results at the European XCO Championships, Brno. Lee finished a strong 70th and Nathan finished 76th after puncturing out of 65th with one and a half laps to go! Both riders started on the back row of the grid and battled through the field!!
“European XC Champs done and dusted. I finished 70th out of 110 riders which was as much as I could do from the very back of the grid. My legs were good and I felt I was riding well with no mistakes but at this level, it’s unbelievably difficult to come through the field.
I had some great battles with Belgian and Polish riders and pulled some good overtaking moves so I’m happy that I was racing hard the whole way.
I’d like to say a huge thank you to Gareth McKee who was looking after us. Having a rider as good as him was a big help during practice where he’d run between the features on the course, watch what lines the quick guys were using then get that information to cut down the length of time it took us to figure outlines. He was our only staff member so after all, he did for us this weekend I’m sure he’s as tired out as we are now! It was great to get to know my teammate Nathan a bit better, he was having a great race and it’s a shame he got a puncture but luckily he was able to get a wheel and make it to the finish.
Thanks to Cycling Ireland for sending us to this event”
My wee rant…
Here something who niggles at me and don’t reflect the choice of the men juniors, but hey we have junior women too!! Just a pity CI didn’t send any junior ladies down…they would benefit from such race in the long run and gaining valuable experience… these lads deserved fully a call-up but why not calling up 2 girls to bring some equality into their sport!!!!!!!
