When it comes to the TAURON SEC, Andzejs Lebedevs (Andrzej Lebiediew in Polish) is one of the most experienced riders in the competition, having appeared in six of the last eight events. And in 2017 the Latvian stunned the speedway world by winning his first ever European Championships. Although he did not win an individual round, he came to the final in all four events, including a second place in Güstrow, the next venue for this year’s competition.
The Latvian was signed with ROW Rybnik in Ekstraliga in 2020. But raced just 10 heats in the top league due to injury.
Now, in 2021, he is back and is in superb form.
His team, Wilki Krosno, are top of the table in eWinner 1 and the 26-year-old has clocked up an average of 2.135, putting him in 12th place on the individual rankings. That makes him the top scoring rider from League 1 who is taking part in the TAURON SEC, apart from the David Bellego.
We meet Lebedevs in a busy depot before the match between Eskilstuna Smederna and Motala Piraterna in Sweden’s Elitserien. It is a warm summer evening and the Latvian is in a relaxed mood, wearing his black Eskilstuna t-shirt and a pair of mirrored shades. It is just six days since his first TAURON SEC meeting in Bydgoszcz and since then he has raced in three different countries, including qualifying for the SGP Challenge meeting later this year.
“I’m a bit tired,” he admits honestly, “but that’s the job,” he says with a smile. And it is hardly a surprise when we hear that he raced in Russia on Friday, Croatia on Saturday, Poland on Sunday and now is in Sweden on Tuesday.
We get straight into discussing Round 1 of the TAURON SEC in Bydgoszcz, “I was very unlucky,” he tells us, “In four of my five heats, I was first out of the gate. But there was something wrong with the bike, I had no power. The same with my other bike, nothing”.
Despite those great starts the former champion picked up just 5 points and won only one heat.
“We did all we could with the bikes and I was feeling really good. We changed everything but, I guess, well, we were just unlucky,” he repeats still with an optimistic tone of voice.
“At Güstrow, we will do everything we can so that we can be happy with the performance. I hope it will go well,” he says before he gets ready for the track walkabout with the rest of the team.
Lebedevs finished the race with 8+1 as Smederna won to remain undefeated and top the table in Sweden after three matches. Now he will have a few days rest before travelling to Germany to face Europe’s best rider in Round 2 of the TAURON SEC.