The 2018 European Champion, Denmark's Leon Madsen, above, won the first Round of this year's TAURON SEC in Torun tonight.
The Dane did not qualify automatically for the final but had to go through the so called Last Chance Heat, a form of semi final where no points are scored, to decide who would meet three time world champion, Nicki Pedersen and British rider, Robert Lambert in today's final.
Madsen came second behind Bartosz Smektala in the Last Chance heat meaning that there were two Danes, a Brit and one person from the host nation where in the final.
The inside lane had been the clear favourite during the evening. But even though it was veteran Pedersen who had it, he was unable to secure victory. Taking the lead from the gate, he accelerated too hard as he came out of turn 2 and struggled to maintain control of the bike as he first wheeled and then slid out towards the fence. Lambert, who had started well in Gate 2 seemed to have been gifted a chance for the win, but somehow from Gate 4 Madsen came screaming around the outside, avoided the drifting Pedersen, to cut Lambert off and take the lead which he refused to let go off.
Madsen had previously won at Torun in the last SGP race of 2019, and showed why he is currently the highest scoring rider in the Ekstraliga with a great final performance.
Robert Lambert and Nicki Pedersen both lead the competition with 14 points after the first round, with the Brit being given the leader's Golden Bib by virtue of beating the 43 year old when they went head-to-head in tonight's race.
Round 2 will be in Bydgoszcz on Wednesday when no less than Emil Sayfutdinov will be the wildcard.
