Cycling: Paul order for city cyclist in Bremen now

City OF EDINBURGH cyclist John Paul left himself with a tough task if he is to record overall success in the sprint competition at the Bremen Six Day Meeting in Germany when he allowed his overnight lead to dwindle away on the penultimate night of racing.

The 19-year-old, who had won the time trial event in each of the previous sessions, suffered his first defeat in the discipline when he was edged out by Germany’s Philipp Thiele. Paul, however, did increased his advantage over his closest challenger, another German, Sebastian Doehrer, who could only finish third.

Doehrer made amends as Paul ended up third behind him in the sprint, and then the Scot came home sixth in the Keirin, four places behind his rival for the title. Doehrer then set up a tense finale in the battle for the silverware when he combined with Erik Baltzer and Thiele to chalk up a win in the team sprint over Paul, his City of Edinburgh team-mate Callum Skinner and Welshman Lewis Oliva to share top spot, with Paul in the points ranking ahead of the final night’s 
competition.