UCI Indoor Cycling World Championships: repeat winners and new UCI World Champions on final day

The last day of competition in Ghent, Belgium, saw rainbow bands go to Austria’s Patrick Schnetzer and Stefan Feuerstein in cycle-ball. In artistic cycling, Lukas Kohl won a superb sixth UCI World title, while Sophie-Marie Wöhrle and Caroline Wurth were crowned in the Pair Women competition for the first time.

Cycle-ball: Schnetzer’s amazing eighth title

"It's just incredible," said Patrick Schnetzer of his eighth UCI world title, his first with new partner Stefan Feuerstein. .

As unbeaten preliminary round winners, the Austrians won the semi-finals against Belgium (7:2), then prevailed in a thrilling final against defending UCI World Champions Germany, with a 7:4 win.

"We had some teething troubles," said goalkeeper Schnetzer with critical introspection. "We then improved from game to game." Schnetzer/Feuerstein wanted to take the final calmly. "But we made mistakes. I thought to myself, we must not throw this away now and must fight back. Even when we were behind, we didn't lose patience."

Patrick Schnetzer suffered two serious shoulder injuries this year. First at a tournament in January and then in the summer, after a quick and successful comeback to achieve victory at the European Championships, with a fall while training on a mountain bike.

For six weeks until September, he was not allowed to lift his arm higher than 90 degrees because of a double fracture of his collarbone. With targeted muscle building, however, he was fit again in time for the UCI World Championships in Ghent.

The new title is something special, given that Schnetzer’s first victory was in 2011 with Dietmar Schneider, before winning six gold medals with Markus Bröll between 2013 and 2019. But Schnetzer emphasizes the importance of this current partnership: "Stefan is my third partner with whom I have won the rainbow jersey. I get on very well with him and it was great to see how he continued to work hard during my injury breaks and saved the season with different replacement partners."

Germany and Switzerland also on the cycle-ball podium

It was a big disappointment for the dethroned UCI World Champions Bernd and Gerhard Mlady. "I have to let that sink in," said Bernd. “We missed chances and let our opponents score easy goals.”

The team from the village of Stein near Nuremberg had struggled this season with an injury to goalkeeper Gerhard – but they finished with the German Champions title as well as silver medals at the European Championships and UCI World Championships. And there is still an opportunity for revenge at the UCI Cycle-ball World Cup final on 26 November in Sulgen (Germany).

The host team Belgium was denied their happy ending: Brecht Damen and Niels Dirikx played their last tournament, dreaming of a medal.

In the match for third place, they went against Severin and Benjamin Waibel (Switzerland) and after five minutes the hopes for bronze were already fading as they faced a 0:4 deficit. The Belgians did not give up and fought their way back. But the Waibel brothers went on to win 5:3 and secured bronze following their silver in 2021.

In the relegation play-off, the Czech Republic (Jiri Hrdlicka and Robert Zvolanek) secured their place in Group A, winning 8:0 against the Group B winners Japan (Yusuke Murakami and Yuma Takahashi).

Artistic cycling: Lukas Kohl’s 6th Single Men title

If there's a surefire gold medal bet, it's on Lukas Kohl. The artistic cyclist from the Bavarian town of Kirchehrenbach has dominated since his first UCI World Championships title in 2016. Since then, with six UCI World titles, the German has been unbeaten. The 26-year-old was at the highest level in Ghent; even a small mistake in the final did not upset him. Kohl’s result, with 208.20 points, was higher than the routine starting values of his pursuers.

Second place went to the national coach of the German U19s, Marcel Jüngling (Dornheim/GER) who, apart from one fall, demonstrated an otherwise perfect routine, delivering 196.41 points. It is his second silver medal, after 2019.

"Getting past Lukas is out of the question," commented third-placed Emilo Arellano. The son of former UCI World Championships silver medallist José Arellano, who grew up in Germany, won bronze – with 189.78 points – for the second time in two participations.

"I will now work a little harder on my safety in the programme in order to move forward at the UCI World Championships in Glasgow in 2023."

Fourth place went to Hungary’s Martin Schön, who contested his second Final 4 after 2019 and improved significantly, earning 175.60 points. Although not a record score, Schön holds the record for the number of participations at the UCI Indoor Cycling World Championships: 15 since his first appearance in 2006.

Artistic cycling: Wöhrle and Wurth secure Pair Women gold

After three silver medals, Sophie-Marie Wöhrle and Caroline Wurth (Gutach, Germany) almost found themselves on the second step of the podium again due to problems during two pirouette figures. This cost the European Champions valuable points in their bid to win the UCI World title at their fourth attempt.

Once again the pair had started with the most difficult routine and found themselves in second place after the preliminary round before finally taking the victory with 142.72 points.

"The first part of our routine also went great. But somehow we became increasingly nervous in the second part," said Caroline Wurth, who admitted she wasn’t sure they had done enough for the win.

"Now we're just happy that we finally won the rainbow jersey", she beamed.

This time the defending UCI World Champions Selina Marquardt / Helen Vordermeier (GER) had to make do with the runner-up spot on 140.45 points. In qualification, they had taken the lead with a splendid presentation, just missing their personal best. In the finale, however, they were caught out on one element that lost them decisive points and ultimately cost them the win.

Third place went to Rosa Kopf and Svenja Bachmann from Austria. The duo from RV Enzian Sulz was haunted by injury this year as Svenja broke her arm in spring. However, they came back to win their fourth bronze medal after 2018, 2019 and 2021. With 118.82 points, they had a three-point advantage over Sina Bäggli and Julia Hämmerli of Switzerland.