As expected, the winning streak of the German women’s foursome came to an end at the Track Cycling World Championships in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines after a change in personnel.
The two Tokyo Olympic champions Mieke Kröger and Franziska Brauße, together with Lena Charlotte Reissner and Lea Lin Teutenberg, were timed in qualifying with a time of 4:16.898 minutes and thus took fifth place. This means that the quartet can only race for third place on Thursday on the 2024 Olympic track.
The German women’s four had won almost everything in the past two years. After gold in Tokyo, the foursome, who were named Team of the Year at the Sports Gala, also triumphed at the 2021 World Cup and at the 2021 and 2022 European Championships. After the 2022 European Championships in Munich, however, multiple world champion Lisa Brennauer ended her career. In addition, Lisa Klein decided not to start at the World Cup due to health problems. And successor Laura üßmilch has not yet fully recovered from her fall injury at the Tour de France.
“We’re not starting from scratch. One stopped, two others got sick. We’re trying to introduce the younger girls. The situation has now come that you have to step in. We’re trying to keep in touch as much as possible,” said National coach André Korff.
The German men’s foursome, which also had a change of personnel, did even worse in the qualification. Theo Reinhardt, Tobias Buck-Gramcko, Nicolas Heinrich and Leon Rohde finished seventh in 3:52.332 minutes.
WM-Homepage Federation of German Cyclists World Cycling Association
