FORM PREVIEW: Bellego, Lebedevs and Logachev
With less than a week to go until the tapes go up on the TAURON SEC, fans across the world are talking about who will win Round 1 in Bydgoszcz on Saturday.
Below, we take a look at the current form of some of the top three riders who are racing in Poland’s eWinner 1 League. The first three are:
1. David Bellego, FRA, 3rd, 2.281
2. Andzejs Lebedevs, LAT, 8th, 2.175
3. Sergey Logachev, RUS, 9th, 2.167
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David Bellego, FRA
28-year-old Frenchman, Bellego, is due to appear in his third TAURON SEC in a row. He is the top placed rider in 1 League who is competing in the European Championship and there he has an incredible heat average of 2.281.
This was looking like the best season of his career and the Frenchman was hoping to get to finish in the top four of a Round for the first time in in the competition.
However, a horrific three-way crash on Saturday 6 June in Rybnik has left him with a broken left collarbone. The initial prognosis was that he would be out for a least 10 days. That would mean he would miss the opening Round at his home track in Poland, Bydgoszcz. However, no operation can be done to heal the collarbone. So, it will be a question of how long it takes for doctors to say he can race again.
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Andzejs Lebedevs, LAT
When it comes to the TAURON SEC, Andzejs Lebedevs (red helmet, above) is one of the most experienced riders in the competition having appeared in six of the last eight events since 2014. And in 2017 the Latvian stunned the speedway world with his first ever win in the 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, which will also feature in this year’s competition.
The Latvian qualified by finishing 4th in the SEC Challenge in Pardubice and is back as a permanent rider in the competition for the first time since 2018. Not only that, but his form in eWinner 1 with league leader’s Wilki Krosno shows that 26-year-old is back to racing some of his best speedway since the European title win.
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Sergey Logachev, RUS
The 26-year-old Russian has been in the European Championship before. However, he appeared in just one heat as a replacement when the event visited his club, Rybnik in 2020. This time around when the 2021 TAURON SEC visits the town, Logachev will be there as a permanent rider.
In 2020, the Russian was with his team in the Ekstraliga and finished the season off in 37th position with a 1.465 average. That put him level with riders of the calibre of Michael Jepsen Jensen, Antonio Lindbäck and Krzysztof Kasprzak.
And this year in 1 League he is flying with a 2.167 average. His experience in this league could be a great advantage when it comes to the overall rankings. That’s because three of the four venues for this year’s TAURON SEC are clubs from this Polish league.
Three other of this year’s TAURON SEC competitors are also racing in eWinner 1 League in Poland. They are Patrick Hansen, Vaclav Milik and Timo Lathi. We’ll have a look at them in our next article.
*Statistics correct as of 8 June 2021
