Pedersen celebrates league win with Masarna in 2020.
#GRUCZE
Yet another remarkable episode in Danish veteran, Nicki Pedersen’s long career was written today when his Polish team, GKM Grudziadz, avoided relegation with a surprising home win against Częstochowa on Sunday night, 48:42. It was only their second win of the entire 2021 season.
The Dane was only given permission to ride five days ago after being banned for six months by the Danish Motor Union following an altercation with a referee in Denmark.
Whilst the 44 year old was not the team’s highest scorer, he scored 11 pts and without a rider of his calibre it is hard to see how they could have beaten the Lions who have strength in depth with Nordic SGP duo, Leon Madsen and Fredrik Lindgren, in their roster as well as the year’s best junior, Jakub Miskowiak.
It was a closely fought match where Grudziadz went ahead several times only for their lead to be cancelled out in the next heat. But three advantages in a row in heats 9-11 gave the home side an 8 points lead which paved the way for the victory, 48:42.
The win means it will be Falubaz Zielona Góra who will be relegated after 15 years in the top division. Therefore, Max Fricke and Patryk Dudek are likely to racing for a new club in 2022, especially after they both qualified for the year’s SGP by coming 2nd and 3rd in the SGP Challenge in Zarnovica yesterday.
At the other end of the table Wroclaw, Gorzow, Lublin and Leszno are through to the playoffs. Meanwhile, the current leader of the SGP series, Bartosz Zmarzlik (GOR) leads the individual rider’s points competition with an incredible average of 2.627, just 0.007 more points than Wroclaw rival, Maciej Janowski.
