Not everything had been going in his line when it comes to rivalry in TAURON SEC 2019. Mikkel Michelsen worked hard through the whole season and made his dream about the gold medal true. He seems like a perfect example of a great determination that can take you to the top.
For Danish rider, season 2019 was a breakthrough in many ways. In Poland, he came back to the top-level league as he also became Lublin's leader. Plus, he was fighting for the pass to Grand Prix series and missed it by inches. Real cherry on top, however, came in Tauron SEC series.
Let's go back to the inaugural round. In Guestrow (Germany), Michelsen didn't impress. He lacked in individual wins as he was also losing points on distance. A small light in the tunnel was his win in the last heat, which gave hope for the upcoming future. July's evening in Toruń is also not the one that will be remembered as one of Michelsen's top ones. Demons from Germany were back and after three series, nothing had seemed like going the right way.
Michelsen, however, got us used to the fact that he's far from giving up easily. Two wins in the next heats made him really close to the race-off heat and even though he didn't make it looked like something bigger was about to come. Before his home crowd in Vojens, an urgent breakthrough occured. It was great both on the start and on distance. Heat no.8 and his defence against attacking Grigorii Laguta was one of the main highlights of this round. At the end of the day, Michelsen ended this meeting piling 15 points and topping the podium in Denmark.
Ahead of the final stage in Chorzów, Grigorii Laguta had been the main favourite. He had four points more in overall classification than Michelsen and it all looked like he's not going to drop this chance for gold. Once again, though, we saw a beautiful show of Dane's determination. As Laguta missed the final heat, a light turned on in Michelsen's head. The rest is history...
Michelsen won the final heat and used Laguta's mistake in the additional heat. Gold medal was his! After an ending ceremony, we saw some fantastic scenes filled with emotions and pure joy amongst his close ones. The crowning of the new Speedway European Champion revealed a real beauty of speedway.
Michelsen's road to the top proved that one should never give up even after two not so good rounds. Determination and a will of fight connected with skills led Dane straight to the very top. Will he repeat it next year? We will see.
