Cyclists Paul, St George hunt UCI points in Europe

Included in this thrust for points are Nicholas Paul and Kollyn St George. Paul and St George are being exposed to high calibre racing throughout the European circuit.

Paul, the 2016 Junior Pan American champion has been turning heads even though this is his first year on the elite circuit.

Earlier in May, he finished third in the sprint and keirin in the Coupe de France Fenioux, after qualifying first in the sprints in 10.849 seconds. That field included the likes of Olympic silver medallist in the team sprint, Michael D’Almedia while St George was sixth overall in the elite women’s sprint after qualifying in a time of 12.770.

Over the past weekend, Paul and St George travelled to Germany to contest three class one events at the semi-covered 200m track in Oeschelbronn, then the outdoor 333m track in Oberhausen and closing at the 250m outdoor track in Dudenhofen over the three days. The event, entitled the Four Bahnentournee (fourth three-stage/event tournament) was littered with the who’s who of international cycling.

Paul opened his account by qualifying first in the flying 200m in Oeschelbronn, with a time of 10.417. His inexperience at this level however, saw him being eliminated in the next round by the eventual third place finisher.

The field was world class and included double Olympic medallists, Callum Skinner and Philip Hindes of Great Britain, multiple world champion Jeff Hoogland (Netherlands) and Damian Zielinksi (Poland) to name a few.

St George qualified in the women’s sprint with a time of 11.875, two hundredths of a second slower than her personal best and national record of 11.854 set at the high altitude track in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

On the second day of Bahnentournee, Paul competed in the keirin and made it to the 7-12 final.

He was adjudged ninth overall against a world class field.

As the event drew to a close in Deudenhofen, the flying 200m was on show once again with Paul qualifying second fastest. He was just behind multiple world champion Maximillian Levy of Germany.

Paul would finish fourth overall behind Levy, Lewis Oliva (Great Britain) and Damien Zielinski (Poland) to close off an impressive showing against some of the best cyclists in the world.