Portugal debuted this Thursday at the European MTB Championship organized by Anadia with two top 10 finishes, in a day entirely dedicated to Short Cross Country (XCC) marked by the two gold medals for Switzerland.
On the track of Tamengos, Mário Costa was seventh and Ricardo Marinheiro 12th in the elite competition won by the British Charlie Aldridge, encouraged by a decisive irruption of a quartet in the initial phase.
Aldridge, who then cut himself off from the rest of the pack for the final two laps, finished 16 seconds ahead of Spaniard David Campos and 22 seconds ahead of Swiss Alexandre Balmer.
Mário Costa finished 1.20 minutes behind the winner, while Ricardo Marinheiro crossed the finish line nine seconds after his compatriot.
Raquel Queirós was eighth in the women’s race35 seconds behind the winner, the Swiss Ronja Blöchlinger, while Joana Monteiro was 12th, 2.01 behind the Swiss, who beat the Italian Giorgia Marchet by 13 seconds and the Swedish Linn Gustafzzon by 19.
In juniors, Íris Chagas was 19th, 2.04 minutes behind the Czech Simona Spesna, while Tomás Gaspar finished his performance in 39th, four laps behind the Swiss Yanick Binz.
It was our debut at the European XCC Championships and I think the We did it brilliantly being in the discussion of the races, honoring the national colors. Our riders have earned a lot of UCI points, that’s why we have the elite riders here. The exception was the junior men’s race, with our representative feeling the effects of being a little sick in recent days”, analyzed the national MTB coach, Pedro Vigário.
On Friday there will be three mixed relay events with the Portuguese teams made up of the elites Joana Monteiro and Ricardo Marinheiro, the under-23s João Cruz and Raquel Queirós and the juniors Artur Mendonça and Mariana Libano.
In the afternoon, Bruno Silva and Ricardo Marinheiro compete in the BTT qualifying round.
Source: Observadora
