And two for Harrie Lavreysen: the Dutch sprint king adorned himself with gold for the second time by winning the individual sprint on Saturday during Euro-2024 on the track, which saw the Belgian Lotte Kopecky win among the women two titles in 30 minutes. In the final, Lavreysen, who two days ago led the Netherlands to victory in the team sprint, beat Pole Mateusz Rudyk.
The one who has dominated his discipline since 2018 has definitely reassured himself less than 200 days before the Paris 2024 Olympics where he will aim for the keirin-team speed-individual sprint triplet, the premier events of the track. At 26, the Dutchman is already 13 times world champion and he intends to make the history of his sport. “In Paris, I will go to win everything,” he told AFP in the euphoria of his sprint victory on the eve of the keirin event in which he will be the favorite in front of his audience, at Apeldoorn, in the center of the Netherlands.
In the women’s category, Belgian Lotte Kopecky achieved the feat of winning gold twice in less than 30 minutes, winning the points race and then elimination. The road world champion, second in the last Tour de France, confirmed in the Netherlands that she was the most complete cyclist on the planet. “I have been on cloud nine for several months. I still have to stay at this level until the Olympics,” she enthused.
Still among the ladies, the 500 meters event kept the 2,000 spectators at the Apeldoorn velodrome in suspense, with the British Katy Marchant only ahead of the Frenchwoman Marie-Divine Kouamé by 37/1000th of a second.