Kategoriearchiv: International 2016

Azencross Loehnhout

This year is about to end and Loenhout hosts the last race of the big series for this year, the Azencross. Located near to the dutch border in the north of belgium, this race attracts a larger amount of dutch racers than most of the other belgian races do.

Loenhout faced many different weather situations during the last year, snow, hail and even black ice were often to be seen. Last years edition featured melting snow and icy muddy water as a threat for all participants. But this year everything was different. As this december was mostly dry and unsually warm, the tricky parcours mutated into some kind of meadow-criterium. This changed the script for the races into something completely different.

Larger groups of riders fighting each other in a fast and close competition, leading to sprint decisions in the final lap.

Thrilling sprint for second place in Loenhout

The junior categories saw some dutch winners, as Mees Hendricks won in the U17 and Thijs Wolsink sprinted to victory in the U19 Category. Both races had quite a bunch of roundabout 70 contenders, as youngster from different nations took advantage of the christmas hollydays to compete here in Belgium.

In the U23 category Daan Hoeyberghs, who was a kind of eternal runner-up during the last races, managed to gain his first victory in a major race this season.

It took a final sprint to decide the race of the women elite. In  the beginning a bunch of four, formed by Helen Wyman, Pavla Havlikova, Ellen van Loy and Sanne Cant, took the lead in the race. British champion Helen Wyman lost contact to this group when crashed in the slippery turn right before the finishing straight. The remaining three tried to force an early decision by attacking one after the other, but no one was able to gain a significant advantage. In the end belgian champion Sanne Cant managed to gain victory in the final sprint although she wasn’t in the best position as she rode close to the bars.

The men’s elite race showed a similar course. A small peloton of about ten riders rode in front, chasing around in high speed. As seen before nobody was able to split the bunch. It lasted long into the second half of the race until Tom Meeusen could gain a short gap in front of the remaining rivals, which he managed to defend up to the finishing line. Only seconds behind Meeusen a sprint royale unfolded. At the end Tim Merlier was the lucky winner in front of his teammate Wout van Aert.

Druivencross Overijse

The „moeder aller crossen (mother off all crosses)“ Vlaamse Druivencross located in Overijse exists since 1960 and hence is one of the old cross races in belgium. Without belonging to one of the important series, most top  riders constantly put this event into their racing calendar.

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Flandriencross Hamme

This cyclocross season started of quite unusual. Warm and dry weather felt a bit strange as cyclocross is associated with mud, rain and snow. But beginning during the last weekend, the weather turned more and more into something familiar for the fans of mud, sweat and tears.

While the former parcours in Hamme-Zogge had been a deep and muddy meadow, the new location in Hamme-Meulenbroek where the Flandriencross took place for the second time is much more diversified. Some meadow parts are still vulnerable to become a mud feast, but the wooded sections showed some fast sectors and technical challenges showed up on the BMX track.

Nevertheless the rainfalls of the past days turned the track in a slippery and strength-sapping field. During the races quite a few rider should face a direkt (and sometimes kind of face to face) contact with flanders grounds.

The U17 race saw a winner no one had heard of before. The swiss champion Laris Roulier appeared on belgian ground for the first time  and won a bit suprisingly. At the junior’s race, the dominator of last years U17 races Florian Vermeersch managed to gain his first victory of the season.

This year Eli Iserbyt starts in the category of the U23 riders. And he seems to continue where he stopped last year at the juniors: In Hamme the young talent from the Telenet-Fidea team could raise his arms in the air to glory in victory one more time.

A short charity race was scheduled just before the launch of the women’s race. A bunch of five former world champions ((Niels Albert, Danny de Bie, Paul Herygers, Erwin Verwecken and Bart Wellens)  representing a total of nine world champion titles competed two laps in a race for the good of a foundation for the research of cardiac deseases. With a lot of fun and a small sporting effort Niels Albert won the race in a final sprint ahead of Erwin Verwecken. Bart Wellens, beeing handicapped with a bit of weight he gained after terminating his active carreer, finished in third position. During the podium ceremony, Niels Albert was champained by his comrades before he managed to hand over a genereous cheque for the good of the cardiac foundation.

It’s been a long time since british champion Helen Wyman won a race in on of the mayor belgian cross series. The last victory had been at the nationals in january and the start of the season had not been as planned. But luck comes to those who can wait. This time everything worked out well for the gentle british lady. Right from the start Wyman managed to put pressure on her opponents and quickly she had a pretty gap between herself and the rest of the bunch. European champion Sanne Cant didn’t start as good as usual and had to struggle to get into the chase of Wyman. From lap to lap Cant seemed to get closer to Wyman, but some small mistakes of Cant and a perfect race of Wyman left the lucky side for the british champion. Nikki Harris prooved once more, that she is in a good and consistent shape finishing one more time on the podium, as she crossed the finish line in third position.

Wout van Aert continues to be the measure of all things. The vice worldchampion never ever left any chance for his opponents and once again gained a solo win in his usual plomb. The only other rider who appeared to be nearly a match for Wout van Aert was Sven Nys. The „Kanibal van Baal“ almost managed to close thc gap to van Aert and finished on second rank. Last years winner  Kevin Pauwels finished in third position abd gained the last remaining spot on the podium.

The price for the most spectacular touch down belongs to world champion Mathieu van der Poel, for sure. Van der Poel showed an awesome salto with a twist while chasing Kevin Pauwels. This stunt threw him back into fith position.

Finde den Weltmeister

Find the champion – Mathieu van der Poel astray