Month of December
It's cyclo-cross time
At the world-cup leg on the motorsport-circuit in Zolder, Jempy Drucker showed an excellent performance and battled during a long time for a Top 20 finish, before crossing the line in position 30.
Results:
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| World-cup Zolder
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Kevin Pauwels
30th at 3'47"
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| Azencross Loenhout
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Sven Nys
26th at 5'15"
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The Luxemburgish rider had a very good start and after half a lap, he had already passed lots of riders that had lined up before him.
After two laps of hard chasing, Jempy managed to bridge up to a big group that was riding for 15th place at that moment. Next to U23 world champion Philippe Walsleben, there were also riders like in this group like Nicolas Bazin, Kamil Ausbuher and Ondrej Bambula, the two dominating riders of the GP de Contern this year, Dariusz Gil, Swiss rider Wildhaber, MTB world champion Marco Aurelio Fontana or the former French champions John Gadret and David Derepas. Walsleben rode a strong pace at the front of this small peloton, so that it splitted up more and more towards mid-race. Drucker had to pay a little bit for the efforts at the beginning of the race and he found himself together with John Gadret for the rest of the race. At the end, Jempy finished in 30th position, 3’44” down on winner Kevin Pauwels. The three big favourites of the race, Stybar, Nys and Albert, had some troubles to get into the action and found themselves in the second row after the opening lap. At the front of the race, a group with Pauwels and the two Rabobank stars Bart Aernouts and Gerben De Knegt broke away on the second lap. After a crash from Nys at mid-race, world champion Niels Albert was able to bridge up alone to the leading trio, but he didn’t have enough power left to hold on to Kevin Pauwels. The Belgian from Fidea had a strong day, he broke away for the victory in the last laps. After having won in Overijse and at various world-championships in the youth categories, Pauwels took his first elite world-cup win today in Zolder, whereas Albert had to settle down with second place. After an intense last lap where he made an impressive come-back, Sven Nys was able to catch the third place on the podium, ahead of Aernouts and De Knegt. While Jempy Drucker didn't finish the race in Diegem, he was again at the top in the
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Nys, Stybar, Albert, Drucker
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Azencross in Loenhout, the same race where he suffered from this nasty crash just one year ago. Of course, the start is always very dangerous here with nearly 70 riders linng up, but after one lap on the muddy and difficult course, Jempy passed shortly after position 30 this time, before moving up together with Dutchman Wiland Van Gils in the next two laps. After round three, the Luxemburgish rider was situated around the twentieth place, together with competitors like Tom Van den Bosch, the winner of Leudelange, like Tim Van Nuffel or Philipp Walsleben. During the second part of the race, Jempy wasn't able to hold his awesome rythm and he couldn't resist to the return of Jan Soetens and Ben Berden, two riders who are also well known in Luxembourg. At the end, Drucker finished in a good 26th place out of 68 riders, 5 minutes behind the winner. This one was called for the fifth time in the history of the event Sven Nys. The Belgian champion took the win after a tremendous fight against Zdenek Stybar and Niels Albert. Each of the three rides knew a few crashes or other small problems on the tough course, but none of them was able to get rid of the two others. At the end, a very strong Sven Nys was the first to come out of the last lap and he took the victory 8 seconds ahead of the world champion and 17 before the Czech National champion. The fourth of the race, Gerben De Knegt, came nearly one and a half minutes late on the winner, while fifth position was held by Rob Peeters, the winner of Differdange.
One and a half months after having ridden his last road race for the season, and nearly a year after having lined up at his last cyclo-cross race,
Results:
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| GP Cajot Leudelange
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Tom Van den Bosch
4th at 46"
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| Druivencross Overijse
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Niels Albert
26th at 4'17"
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| World-cup Kalmthout
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Sven Nys
42nd at 4'48"
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| Noordzeecross Middlekerke
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Sven Nys
15th at 3'19"
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Jempy Drucker is on the bike again for a short, but busy winter season. In the month of Decembre, Jempy has no less than 8 races on his programm, among them the biggest races of the Christmas period.
And for his first cyclo-cross of the season, he didn't chose an easy one since the Grand-prix Julien Cajot is reknowned for his tough course and a good line-up. The bad weather also played a role today and transformed the course into a mud feast where huge technical and physical skills were required. But Jempy Drucker was in good shape and he was able to hang onto the best group at the beginning, a group of 10 that formed in the first lap after some hard work from Tim Van Nuffel. But soon, the group splitted up and only Berden, Van den Bosch and the two riders from Poland, Szepaniak and Konwa, remained at the front while Jempy Drucker battled hard to bridge up shortly behind them. The Luxemburgeish rider had some power left and he managed to move up into third place with three laps to go, before being passed again by Szepaniak at the end. Eventually, Jempy took an excellent fourth place for his first race, 46 seconds late on the winner of the day. The race was decided between the two Belgians Tom Van den Bosch and Ben Berden, but the actual Belgian elite without contract champion wasn't able to hold the young and talented Van den Bosch in the last laps and he had to settle down with second place.
At the Druivencross in Overijse, Jempy Drucker had his first contact with the world top riders and for his first race at this level, he took a very good result with the 26th place, 4 minutes down on winner Niels Albert. Just like the day before in Essen, the world champion dominated the race and splitted up the big lead group in the third lap. Only last year's winner Kevin Pauwels was able to follow the young Albert, but he also lost the wheel of the man in the rainbow jersey a few laps later. But with a nice effort, Pauwels secured his second place against Belgian champion Sven Nys, who came up very strongly at the end after a rather disappointing opening lap. Jempy Drucker, on his side, battled hard against some reknowned riders at the end like the team-mate of Sven Nys and winner in Sankt-Niklaas, Rob Peeters, former Belgian champion Jan Soetens or English talent Ian Field. At the end, the outcome was very tight and Jempy managed to take 26th position just 4 seconds ahead of the rider from Landbouwkrediet.
The world-cup race in Kalmthout was marked by extreme winter conditions and on the snow, Belgian champ Sven Nys is the Best. The world champion of Sankt-Wendel was able to come back after a crash and several mechanical problems: he bridged up to the front group in the last minutes of racing, just to leave Zdenek Stybar behind him in the very last lap. Niels Albert finished in third position and the only riders who were able to follow the three stars of the winter were once again Klaas Vantornout, the winner of the GP in Contern down in 2005 as well as his team-mate Sven Vanthourenhout. Jempy Drucker wasn't at his ease on the slippery course and he finished his first world-cup event of the season in 42nd position, nearly 5 minutes down on the winner. Due to his lack of UCI points, he had to take off at the back of the field and slowly moved up against the other riders. Even if the result wasn't as good as in Overijse, Jempy battled against two reigning world champions at the end, Philippe Walsleben and Marco Aurelio Fontana, only a few seconds ahead of Luxemburg champion Gusty Bausch who is always at his Best in icy conditions.
At the Noordzeecross in Middlekerke, two days before Christmas, the weather was still cold and the course was again very difficult with a mixture of snow and mud all over the way. Jempy Drucker battled against Geert Wellens, Italian rider Marco Bianco or American Jeremy Powers during several laps, before easing the pace and finishing one minute behind the rider just ahead of him. At the end, it meant position 15 for him, 3'19" behind winner Sven Nys. With Albert and Stybar not at the start, the Belgian champ was again the dominating rider and he took the lead of the race as of the third lap and held it until the very end, despite some opposition of the surprising Tom Meeusen. The winner of the U23 race in Kalmthout had already shown in Antwerpen with an excellent second place that he was worth the best elite riders and he did exactly the same today. Due to his superb technical skills, Meeusen even was the only rider who was able to follow Nys for a while, while Klaas Vantornout lost his chances very early after a crash, but still finished third of the race, more than a minute behind the winner.
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