Cycling: Vogel is looking forward to “cool” home championship, but worried about perspective

Kristina Vogel is the German hopeful at the track cycling championship in Berlin and is aiming for three medals.But before the home event, the Olympic champion’s anticipation is overshadowed.

Kristina Vogel and Miriam Welte are accustomed to victories, but even the extensive success story of the German rail bike dream team has gaps.At the Olympic Games and World Championships, the winning duo has already cheered for gold, while Vogel and Welte are still waiting for a victory in the team sprint by continental standards.

When Vogel und Welte gets the starting signal for the home European Championship in Berlin on Thursday, this flaw should finally be repaired.

“We’ll start together on the very first day.Should Miriam and I win the much longed-for gold medal in the European Championship, that would be very nice,”said Vogel to SID.Three times the 26-year-old from Erfurt and her long-time companion from Kaiserslautern were close to victory, three times in the final only silver (2013 to 2015).

The home advantage in the Velodrom on Landsberger Allee, where the track was completely replaced in the 250-meter oval, is of course really cool that we finally have such a big event at home “, said Vogel, who called the new surface” terribly fast “.

The Bund Deutscher Radfahrer (BDR, the German Cycling Federation), which is aiming for “four to seven medals” (sport director Patrick Moster) at the four-day event, is betting on frighteningly fast laps of Vogels.Olympic champion Vogel, who is one of the medal candidates in the first endurance test of the season, could provide for three of these alone.

“I want three medals.At the end you have to see how the colors are distributed.It’s not as easy as it used to be,”said Vogel.Women’s cycling has developed enormously, he said, and it is difficult to assess the performance of rivals.

Despite the good prospects, Vogel’s anticipation of the first international track cycling championship in Berlin since 1999 is overshadowed, however.About two months ago, Vogel lost one of the architects of its success in the exercise bike trainer Tim Zühlke, who left for China at the Olympic base in Thuringia.

“We all mourned for a long time, we celebrated seven beautiful years with Tim.It hit us hard,”said Vogel, who sees Zühle’s departure as a warning for German sport,”It makes you angry when a good coach changes because of lack of prospects.It should be a wake-up call,”said Vogel, who did not spare criticism of the reform of professional sport:”In the end, I only notice that everywhere we cut back, shorten and shorten.It makes you angry when you see how it can run in other countries and what successes are achieved there.That’s a little depressing.”