The great Swiss hope wanted so much for these World Championships on home soil… Maybe too much? Jan Christen set off at full speed and had the best time at the top of the hill on the course. He then paid for his energy expenditure in the 12 km of flat towards Zurich. Even though he gave absolutely everything – he even threw up after crossing the line – the rider from the UAE team of Tadej Pogacar and Marc Hirschi was largely defeated in the end.
He had come for the gold, but he had still admitted that a medal would be a great achievement. He succeeded. He was only beaten by the Spaniard Ivan Romeo by 40 seconds and by the Swede Jakob Soderqvist by 8 seconds. The other Swiss in the running, the Argovian Fabian Weiss, finished in a respectable 19th place, two minutes behind.
“I was so happy about this day…” Christen smiled, as two opponents passed him. “At the start, I had a pretty good feeling, but then I had stomach pains and started to dig in. I don’t know what happened. I tried to throw up on the course to be able to breathe normally again. As if something was stuck. I suffered as much as I could to get to the finish as quickly as possible.”
The competition was of a very high level – 29.2% of the World Tour riders are under 23! – for this event which should change configuration in the coming years. Because most of the top hopefuls are now largely established among the professionals and all or almost all fight all year long on the World Tour front. From next year, the riders evolving within the teams of the first two pro divisions of the peloton should be pushed aside in favor of the “amateurs”.
