Mikkel Michelsen was fourth in the first round of TAURON Speedway Euro Championship 2018, which was held in Gniezno. Dane was struggling not only with rivals at the track, but mainly with a big pain caused by shoulder's injury.
Through the whole meeting, nearly after every heat, an inherent image was him having ice put on his shoulder. Dane got this injury during the league match in Poland and it was really close to make him eliminated from the start in Euro Championship.
Despite a huge pain, Dane was getting better and better with every next heat, which made him got through to the final heat of the round in Gniezno.
- I knew before today that i was not gonna be 100 % ready and I actually found out that I'm not even close, so the main goal was just to score points in every race and get as many points as i possible could. We managed to battle through the pain and my mechanics did a good job with the bikes. It made a little bit easier for me, because in two first races i wasn't feeling too comfortable, I was struggling holding the bike when i was racing. We found a good solution in a middle of way to still have a speed, and for me to have maximum control on bike - Michelsen said.
Dane's advance to the final heat was quite a surprise. Even in full health, there were probably not many who had put him as a candidate to win in Gniezno. Michelsen proved, however, he is able to be one of the top scoring riders in TAURON Speedway Euro Championship.
- Be in a final - it wasn't our expectation. I'm just happy for today. It was good first round for me and we just want to look forward to the next one - Michelsen ended.
Second round of TAURON Speedway Euro Championship 2018 will be held in Güstrow on July 14, 2018. Tickets are available: http://bit.ly/TAURON_SEC_GUSTROW.
Live broadcast on Eurosport.
Starting list:
1.Leon Madsen #66
2. Kevin Woelbert #16
3. Vaclav Milik #225
4. Andzejs Lebedevs #29
5. Kai Huckenbeck #744
6. Mikkel Michelsen #155
7. Andrey Kudryashov #91
8. Piotr Pawlicki #777
9. Emil Sajfutdinov #89
10. Krzysztof Kasprzak #507
11. Jarosław Hampel #33
12. Josef Franc #444
13. Antonio Lindbaeck #85
14. Andreas Jonsson #100
15. Peter Kildemand #25
16. Robert Lambert #505
17. Max Dilger
18. Tobias Busch