The 4X European Championships took part last weekend on the 29/30 July in Stollberg, Germany. Representing Great Britain Scott Beaumont, now riding for Rocky Mountain, had a great race to take a Silver medal. Joost Wichman (NED) took Gold and Guildo Tschugg Bronze (GER).

Here’s Scott’s account of the evening:

“The track was fantastic. A permanent 4X track that has been around for 10 years, has a vibrant club and is based at the centre of the town for the local people to enjoy.

The weather threatened all weekend. On Friday it was hot and sunny, but this soon turned to humid with thunderstorms. By Saturday the clouds loomed all day and night but luckily the rain held off.

In qualifying, German rider Guido Tschugg took the fastest time, closely followed by Joost Wichman from Holland and Guido’s brother Arne in third. It soon emerged that these three riders had been at the track several times over the past few weeks training and getting to know the track. I qualified 8th which I was pretty happy with and it gave me a good draw going into the evening’s races.

Come race time and I felt good. I transferred through the first two rounds of racing no problem. In the quarter final I met Guido Tschugg for the first time that evening. I got the jump on him from the gate and didn’t look back winning the quarter final as well. As Guido was the fastest qualifier my confidence was starting to grow.

In the semi final I lined up against Will Longden, Matei Vitko and Guido Tschugg. Guido led from Matei, myself and Will. Going under the bridge near the finish I dived inside of Matei to take second position and with it a place in the final.

Onto the final, and Guido Tschugg took gate one, Joost Wichman two, Jurg Meier three and I was on the outside. Being on the outside though almost certainly meant I would be squeezed out in the first turn. I gated well but the 4 of us bunched in the first turn and I ran out of track. Heading down the second straight I was at the back. It actually turned out to be a blessing as Jurg Meier also made contact and crashed out of contention. So I had a safe third and was chasing down the leaders. They were ahead tussling, and before heading under the bridge and starting the last straight, they collided. It was my chance as Guido had gone off course. I dived inside and took second position from him, holding it all the way to the finish.

So that was it, time to celebrate the silver medal!

A big thank you to my dad Mike Beaumont for working on my bikes all weekend, my mum June Beaumont for keeping me motivated after each round at the finish and the other British riders at the event – Steve Taylor and Will Longden for the non stop comedy at the opening ceremony and at the prize giving!”

www.4cross.eu for more information.