Pardubice: Gold Helmet stays in the Czech Republic – Kai Huckenbeck on the podium

Across four qualifying and quarter-final groups, each comprising six riders, twelve of the 36 competitors advanced to the two semi-final groups. There, the riders were then selected for the main Gold Helmet final and the third-place play-off for places 7 to 12.

In the qualifying round, Hannah Grunwald joined Mario Häusl and Sebastian Kössler from Austria as another German-speaking rider. Whilst Kössler finished in the top three in the second group and Häusl in the third, both progressing to the quarter-finals, Grunwald’s race day came to an end after three heats. The women’s world champion scored just one point in her group and was eliminated.

Kai Huckenbeck cruised into the final

Kai Huckenbeck had already qualified for the quarter-final groups, and the rider from Werlte needed just two heats to secure his place in the semi-finals. In the first heat, he scored four points with a second-place finish behind the winner of the ‘Golden Band’, Maksymilian Pawelczak, and then won his second race. He didn’t need to start his third race, as the worst result from the three races was discarded anyway and he had safely progressed with nine points. Kössler, with six points scored, and Häusl, with three, were eliminated in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals too, Huckenbeck was able to skip his third race after finishing second in one heat and winning the other, as his place in the grand final was already assured.

Kai Huckenbeck (vorne) gegen Kim Nilsson

Foto: jarek pabijan

The final for the Gold Helmet required a total of three attempts before it could be completed in full. In the first attempt, Kim Nilsson crashed in the starting bend; at the second start, the Swede ended up in the airfences again, along with Jan Kvech. The Czech rider remained unfazed and, like Nilsson, was able to rejoin the race. In the third attempt, over six laps, Andzejs Lebedevs led the field from the start ahead of Huckenbeck. Kvech attacked Kai on the second lap and finally managed to overtake the North German on the third. As they entered the fifth lap, the crowd in Pardubice went wild as Kvech slipped past Lebedevs on the inside and, to great cheers, secured the Gold Helmet.

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Results of the Gold Helmet race in Pardubice, Czech Republic:

Gute Kulisse in Pardubitz

Foto: jarek pabijan