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'It's disrespectful to steal the biggest moment of my career' – Emotional Marie Schreiber criticises race officials after losing European cyclocross title
Luxembourg rider insists she did nothing wrong in the sprint against Lucina Brand and explains why she missed the podium ceremony in protest.
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An emotional Marie Schreiber claimed that race commissaires robbed her of the biggest moment of her career by relegating her to second place in the elite women's European Cyclocross championships.
Schreiber sprinted for victory with world champion Lucinda Brand. She briefly moved across the road, squeezing Brand close to the barriers, but was strong enough to win the sprint.
She began to celebrate the European title but then was summoned to see the race officials and was told she was relegated to second place. In protest, Schreiber refused to take part in the podium ceremony where Brand pulled on the European champion's jersey.
"The UCI, the UEC and everyone advocate for clean and fair sport, then they do this. It's not fair," Schreiber told the media, including HLN, Sporza and WielerFlits, in the mixed zone.
"Everybody knows I won. If it had been decided by two centimetres, I can understand, but like this, it's disrespectful.
"It's a sprint after 50 minutes of all-out racing, you come with a heart rate of 190. I changed my gear and I saw I moved a little bit to the left but I think it's normal to move around. I did not close the door on purpose. Lucinda also said it. I think it's disrespectful to steal the biggest moment of my career."
Brand sportingly admitted that this European title felt different due to the race officials' decision.
"When we came on the tarmac for the sprint, she started a little second earlier than I started. I tried to come up next to her. How it ended up is a jury decision," Brand said.
Schreiber explained how the race commissaires made their decision.
"We reviewed the footage and then me and Lucinda gave our views," she said.
"Lucinda said I did nothing wrong and that she couldn't have passed anyway. I'm thankful she said this but it doesn't change the commissaire's decision."
Schreiber did not take part in the podium ceremony in protest at the decision.
"I was going to go to the podium because I thought everyone would hate me if I didn't go. But then if they're being like this to me, I also don't owe them anything. It's hard to stand here right now, so it's harder to stand on the podium."
