With Niclas Look, Simon Potstada and Nico Wollenberg, two KTM Youngsters were in the saddle this weekend. While Niclas celebrated on the podium, Nico’s race ended painfully.
In Scheffau, a round of the Austrian Youngsters Cup was on the agenda. Niclas Look represented the colours of the KTM Youngsters in the U15 race, Simon Potstada in the U17 competition. Due to the rain of the previous days, the track was still muddy on inspection in the morning, but steady sunshine dried the ground. Niclas liked the course and therefore set his sights on a podium finish before the race. However, as it was his first race in this series, he had to start from the back. Niclas ploughed through the field quickly so as not to lose touch with the leaders. Once there, he rode with another rider at the front, but he pulled away after a while. Everything seemed to be heading for second place, as Niclas had a comfortable lead over third and fourth place. But then he had a weak phase, which allowed his rivals to come closer and one of them even overtook him. But Niclas stayed on and on the last lap he took advantage of a driving mistake by his rival to regain second place and successfully defend it to the finish.
Simon was not able to reach his full potential on this day and finished in seventh place.
Nico had been nominated by the Bavarian cycling federation for the TMP Tour in Thuringia. The tour is held in four stages near Gotha. On the first day, a short criterium was held to determine the jersey wearers for the next day. Nico’s race was for the mountains jersey and the jersey of the best Thuringian. Nico achieved a respectable eighth place in the 32-man field. The next day, a time trial had to be completed in the morning and a road race in the afternoon. The outside conditions were perfect: warm but not too hot and dry roads. The time trial is Nico’s shaky discipline and so he had to settle for a place in the middle of the field with a total of 125 starters. In the road race he went all out for the mountains jersey. Unfortunately, a rider, the later winner of the Tour, escaped from the peloton and so it was only about the further points in the mountain classification. But here Nico also scored points. The peloton was getting smaller from lap to lap. The remaining 30 or so riders reached the finishing straight. In the sprint for second place, Nico was then rudely knocked to the tarmac by some of his fellow riders. Instead of the podium, the day ended in hospital because a wound on his elbow needed stitches. Nico went back to the start the next day after the paramedics had dressed the wound again, but he dropped out halfway through the race because of the pain. However, the tour showed Nico where his weaknesses and also his strengths lie.
