Golden girl
Scotland’s Laura Muir last night emerged as the pride of Britain after storming to 1500 metres gold on the final day of the European Championships in Berlin
HALF a dozen crashes, umpteen punctures, one reigning treble world champion broken on the wheel, five hours and 50 minutes of absolute torture — most of it played out in the kind of cold and wet that only Glasgow in August can produce — followed by a terrifying sprint finish. If masochism and madness are your thing, the road race rarely lets you down. And, on the final day of these European Championships, the host city itself most definitely contributed to the drama. The bare facts will show that the men’s event was won by Italy’s Matteo Trentin, with Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands second and Belgian Wout van Aert taking bronze. But the full story behind this 230km test goes beyond the result. For this was a brutal contest that battered some of the best road cyclists on the planet into submission. Peter Sagan, aiming for a fourth consecutive world championship gold next month, was left burst with almost 90km remaining. Sagan, a man who won his sixth Tour de France green jersey last month, took a very heavy fall on stage 17 in France. He cited that in explaining his withdrawal yesterday, saying: ‘I was not in good shape and I still have a lot of pain from my crash at the Tour de France. ‘It’s a very technical circuit and, if you have no legs, then you need to be in good shape.’ Almost a third of the field failed to finish a race in wet and blustery conditions, with punctures a particular problem early on. ‘There’s a lot of potholes and drain covers and everything’s been washed into the road, so it’s pretty difficult,’ said British rider Ian Stannard, one of the early fallers. Owain Doull, another who didn’t finish, summed up his experience, declaring: ‘It was wet and miserable.’