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The 36th international cyclo-cross of the ACC Contern will be marked by the young generation since the two most reknowned riders of this 2010 edition, Steve Chainel and Rob Peeters, will face the actual junior world champion and a whole bunch of other youngsters from Belgian, Germany, Switzerland or the Czech Republic. Several of them have collected medals at recent World and European championships and are among the best U23 riders of the world.
Fourteenth in the UCI world rankings, Steve Chainel is used to Luxemburgish cyclo-cross and, in addition to his victory in the Grand-prix de la Commune de Niederanven organized by the ACC Contern in 2008, the rider from Bouygues Telecom is a three times winner of the New Year cyclo-cross in Pétange. After having been French National champion in the junior category as well as 3rd in the U23 European championships
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Steve Chainel
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Steve Chainel's career in the elite category started with a bang as he finished fourth of the 2006 world championships in Zeddam for his first season at the highest level. He matched with the favourites during the whole race and was only 10 seconds late on the podium, behind Verwecken, Wellens and Mourey. Chainel is used to good performances in the world championships, he was again with the very best in 2009 in Hoogerheide (9th position) and in 2010 in Tabor when he crossed the finish line in 13th place. The rider from Remiremont in the Vosges region has a total of 13 international wins in the elite category in his palmares, among them victories in Frenkendorf (2005 and 2006) and in Wetzikon, ahead of Christian Heule in 2009. Steve Chainel, who will be riding for Française des Jeux as of the next year, is riding regularly in the French National circuit, even though he is often beaten by Francis Mourey, the other big name in their cyclo-cross. In fact, Chainel has finished two times in a row in second position at the French championships behind his team-mate to be. The season 2010/2011 has started early for Steve Chainel and, after taking 8th place in Erpe-Mere in Belgium, he concentrated on the regional and national French races, taking three wins in a row: Remiremont (ahead of multiple MTB world champion Julien Absalon), Sainte-Marguerite (ahead of Irwin Gras) and Saint-Quentin (ahead of Nicolas Bazin). At the Superprestige in Ruddervoorde, the Frenchman underlined his form by taking a fantastic fourth place, losing the last podium spot behind Stybar and Aernouts for a few seconds only to Sven Nys and last week-end at the world-cup race in Aigle, he finished in 8th position after having been in the select lead group for most of the race. Steve Chainel is also an excellent road racer and he won amongst others the queen stage and the overall classification at the Circuit de Lorraine as well as two stages of the Tour de la Manche in 2008. This summer, he also won a stage at the three days of La Panne, where he finished 4th overall. The rider who is himself organizer of a cylco-cross also took 17th at the Tour of Flanders and 4th in a stage of the Dauphiné Libéré.
There will be again numerous Belgian riders in Contern, among them some of the strongest will be the members of the reknowned FIDEA team. Rob Peeters is one of the in-form contenders of the moment and for his season opener, he took
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Rob Peeters
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Tom Meeusen
Photo: Telnet-Fidea
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Vincent Baestaens
Photo: Telnet-Fidea
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2nd place in Stribro, behind home rider and world champion Zdenek Stybar. Peeters also finished 5th in Ardooie only a few days ago, 10th in Neerpelt, 11th in the GVA event in Namur and 14th at the Superprestige of Ruddervoorde. He was one of the victims of the dominating trio Stybar, Albert and Boom in the younger categories, where he collected 13 podium spots in first-class U23 races, among them a third place in the European championships in Huijbergen behind Albert and Stybar and a silver medal in the Belgian National championships behind the same Niels Albert. In 2007, the cousin of Wilfried Peeters signed his first elite victory in Denain and, after becoming professionnal rider with Landbouwkrediet the following year, he took his biggest win in St-Niklaas, ahead of Simunek and Vanthourenhout. Last season, Peeters showed his great skills by celebrating three victories, in Differdange, Rutland and Lanarvily, a 4th place in the Belgian National championships and several Top 10 positions in various Superprestige and GVA events.
Despite a DNF at the race in Namur, Tom Meeusen is also in splendid shape in the beginning of this season. For the first races, he was 5th in Erpe-Mere and 6th in Neerpelt, two races won by Sven Nys. A 10th position at the Superprestige race in Ruddervoorde would have secured him a place in the Belgian world cup selection, but he was left off due to his young age. The rider with huge technical skills, who is known for bunny-hopping the barriers, counts as Belgian's biggest talent since Niels Albert and collected lots of wins in recent years: overall winner of the Superprestige in the junior category in 2005/2006, overall winner of the GVA Trofee and U23 Belgian champion in 2007/2008. Last year, Meeusen scored a unique grand-slam in the U23 category as he was the overall winner of the three biggest series in cyclo-cross, world-cup, Superprestige and GVA Trophy after having won the races in Koppenberg, Ruddervoorde, Neerpelt, Zonhoven, Oostmalle, Zolder, Roubaix, Gavere, Hamme-Zogge, Gieten, Diegem, Vorselaar, Hasselt, Essen, Loenhout and Baal. But he never won a big international title in his career so far, having placed two times third in European championships and second at the U23 world championships last january in Tabor. He is also a good MTB rider and is three times Belgian National champion on the fat tyres.
Vincent Baestaens has had his biggest moment so far in 2006 in Huijbergen, when he became European champion in the junior category. He had a very good season then, taking wins in Kalmthout (world-cup), Gieten, Hamme-Zogge and Oostmalle. The transition to the U23 category was a difficult one for Baestaens but he came back very strongly in 2009 when he became U23 Belgian National champion in Ruddervoorde and scored a win in Loenhout as well as several podium spots in world-cup races. 2010/2011 started easy for the young Belgian with a good 14th place in the elite race of Neerpelt and a deceiving 18th place in the U23 event in Namur. But in recent weeks, the rider coached by Danny De Bie found a good shape and in Ruddervoorde, he was beaten by the sole Jim Aernouts and took second place ahead of world champion Jouffroy. At the international U23 race held last week-end before the elite world-cup in Aigle, finally, Baestaens took a convincing win ahead of Swiss champion Arnaoud Grand and the Italian Silvestri.
Jim Aernouts is the actual U23 Belgian National champion a title that he won last year in a season where he ended 7 times on a podium in world-cup, Superprestige of GVA races, which provided him with a second place overall
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Jim Aernouts
Photo: BKCP-Powerplus
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in the last two series. On a few occasions, Aernouts managed to break the domination of the older Tom Meeusen to win, among others the world-cup in Koksijde and the Sluitingsprijs in Oostmalle. In the junior category, he was already two times Belgian National champion and won the races in Harderwijk, Ruddervoorde, St. Michielsgestel, Hasselt, Koksijde, Essen and Hamme-Zogge. This season, his last as an espoir, is of course very important for the young Belgian who targets to get a professionnal contract for next year. During the summer, he worked down the whole bunch of preparation races of the BKCP team with Niels Albert, with among others the Tour of Belgium (26th on the first stage) or the Boucles de la Mayenne (22nd on the third stage). As a result, he is in excellent shape at the beginning of this season and finished 12th in the elite race of Erpe-Mere, won in Stabroek, took 9th position in Neerpelt (best U23 rider) and third spot behind world champion Jouffroy in the U23 cyclo-cross in Namur. In the Superprestige of Ruddervoorde, the Belgian champion took revenge over his team-mate and dominated the best U23 riders to take the victory ahead of Baestaens and Joffroy. A few days ago, he also finished a
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Joeri Adams
Photo: Team Rabobank
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brillant 7th in the elite race of Ardooie won by Zdenek Stybar. Aernouts isn't unknown in Contern since he took 5th position in 2008, for one of his first elite races ever.
Another rider who had very good results in the youth categories is named Joeri Adams. He was Belgian National champion in the novice category and became the hero of a whole nation when he took the junior world champion title in 2007, at home in Hooglede-Gits, before the day was spoiled somewhat for his country by the defeat of Niels Albert against Lars Boom in the afternoon. After two world-cup wins (Pijnacker, Hofstade) and victories in Asper-Gavere and Vorselaar in the junior category, Joeri Adams turned his back to cyclo-cross a bit and concentrated more on road-racing. As a member of the Rabobank team, he took amongst others a stage win at the Volta a Lleida and was 10th overall at the Vuelta Ciclista a Leon. This winter, Adams is back off the roads again and is stronger than before with a second place in the U23 race in Namur, a 5th in Ruddervoorde as well as 10th places in the elite races of Erpe-Mere and Harderwijk.
Tom Van den Bosch showed a tremendous performance in Harderwijk at the end of September, when he finished second behind Vanthourenhout, but ahead of riders like Simunek, Van Amerongen or Thijs Al. Since last year, Van den Bosch eventually is a team-mate of the latter in the Dutch AA Drink team. A 14th place in Erpe-Mere and a
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Tom Van den Bosch
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16th in Namur have confirmed his good season begin. During a while, he was considered as the king of the second-category series in Belgian, taking lots of wins in lower ranked races, but he has now established himself in the pro circuit. The son of former cyclo-cross racer André Van den Bosch, who was used to riding in Luxemburg with his brother Danny in the years 1980, has finished 6th, 4th and 2nd of the race in Contern in the years 2007 to 2008. Last year, Tom had a very good winter with wins in Steinmaur and Leudelange as well as Top 10 placings in Harderwijk, Essen, Middelkerke, Otegem and Lanarvily. He was also successfull as a young rider, taking a silver medal at Belgian junior National championships and a bronze medal at the military world championships.
Ben Berden is a little bit of an "enfant terrible" of cyclo-cross, sometimes he made more headlines with his look or his declarations than with his results, although the latter were considerable throughout his career. In fact, he was 3rd at the junior world championships
in Koksijde in 1994 and U23 Belgian National champion on the year after that. In those years, Berden travelled often to Luxemburg and took part in the international races like Fond-de-Gras (3rd), Leudelange (3rd) or
Muhlenbach (1st and 2nd among other results). Year after year, the tatooed Belgian climbed up the rankings and arrived at
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Ben Berden
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the top of career, winning races like Zurich-Waid, Eernegem, Oostmalle, Wortegem-Petegem, Huijbergen, Heerlen, Harderwijk and, most of all, two times the world cup race in Koksijde. He also had an impressive series of podium spots in the Belgian National championships, in Kalmthout, Torino, Milano, Asper-Gavere and other races. But after 2005 and some trouble due to a nasty injury, he had problems to get back to his best level again. Since then, Ben Berden hasn't won any big race again, but he is still present among the best of the cyclo-cross specialists. After having been 3rd of the cyclo-cross in Contern in 2008, he became Belgian National champion in the elite without contract category a few months later. Other good results in the following year like in Lanarvily, Leudelange, Heerlen or Fae di Oderzo earned him again a professionnal contract for the year 2010 with the team Qin of Eric Vanderaerden. After a difficult season opener in Erpe Mere, Ben Berden showed good form in Hardewijk where he finished 7th and confirmed it with a nice 19th position among the world's Best in Namur, earlier this month.
At the beginning of his career, Jan Verstraeten was reknowned as a good road rider, signing wins for example in Circuit du Hainaut or Tour de Liège in the year 2000, as well as some nice placings in Grand-prix Wielerrevue, Brussel – Opwijk, Grand-prix Jeff Scherens or Mémorial Samyn. He continued showing strong performances on the road like his victory in the Grand-prix Etienne de Wilde in 2005, but focused more and more on cyclo-cross. Vertraeten regularely finishes in the Top 10 at the big races like in Diegem (7th in 2005), Wetzikon (8th in 2005), Hoogstraten (7th in 2006), St Michielsgesteel (10th in 2007), Harderwijk (3rd in 2009) or Zonnebeke (6th in 2008 and 7th in 2009) and Hasselt (7th in 2007). He has also won the event in Kayl in 2006 and in 2009, he finished 2nd of the "revenge" for the Belgian championships that always takes place on the day after in Otegem, behind Sven Nys, but ahead of Vantornout and Vanthourenhout. Despite a good road season, the winter 2010/2011 starts low for Verstraeten who has fixed his main goals only later this season and shows an 18th position in Ruddervoorde as best result so far.
Kevin Eeckhout starts his season very strongly with 3 elite wins already, in Knesselare, in De Pinte and in Zingem, a good fourth place in the U23 event in Namur and a sixth in Ruddervoorde, while his previous season hasn't been as brilliant despite two wins in category B races.
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Kevin Eeckhout
Photo: Sunweb-Revor
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Vinnie Braet
Photo: Sunweb-Revor
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Eeckhout started a solid preparation on the road this summer, where he took also a win in Klein-Sinaai. In the junior category, he landed occasionnaly on the podium in Superprestige races and was 12th in the junior world championships in Hooglede-Gits, on his home ground. His first season as an espoir racer was a good one with 3 victories in minor races, a fourth place in the Belgian National championships and 6th positions in the elite races in Neerpelt and Seinmaur. His Sunweb-Revor team-mate Vinnie Braet finished as 12th in Namur and De Pinte, as well as 2nd behind Eeckhout in Knesselaere. The young man from Zwevezele hasn't been at his best so far this season as he prefers the tough and muddy courses that he will find later on this year. But Braet is also a good rider on the road, he was this summer 23rd in the Thüringen-rundfahrt, 31st of the U23 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad or 46th of Paris-Roubaix for riders with less than 23 years. Last winter, Vinnie Braet finished 12th on the Koppenberg and 2 times 2nd in races for elite without contract riders (in Aalter and in Langemark). In the junior category, he had taken 2nd place in Ruddervoorde and 12th position at the world championships in Hoogerheide, in the Netherlands.
Floris de Thier could well be another big hope for Belgian cyclo-cross in the next years. The rider of Erwin Verwecken's last team Baboco has won 6 junior races last year and became champion of Flanders in the cyclo-cross disciplin. He also finished in the Top 10 in Koppenberg, Middelkerke, Baal and Tervuren.
For his first season as an espoir, he mainly participated in elite without contract races and took
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Team Baboco
Photo: Team Baboco
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4th in Knesselare, 5th in Great Britain's Abergavenny and 7th in De Pinte.
His team-mates Gianni and Ritchie Denolf show up in Luxemburg on a regular basis. Gianni the older finished 11th in Niederanven in 2007 and, last year, he was 6th in Contern behind the Czech armada and German Sascha Wagner. In recent years, the long Belgian showed encouraging results in the U23 category like an 8th place in the Superprestige in Asper-Gavere, 11th and 12th places in Belgian National championships as well as a 12th place in the GP Sven Nys. He doesn't hesitate to participate in elite races and was last season 6th in Differdange and among the Top 5 in half a dozen lower-ranked races in Belgium. This year, Gianni was among others 6th in Moerbeke-Waas. His brother Ritchie is in his second season as an espoir after having shown good results in the junior category like for example a fourth place at the Grand-prix Comat, a 5th in Ruddervoorde or a 14th in the world-cup race in Pijnacker.
Like usually, the Czech delegation will be very strong again. 12 months ago, the riders from Eastern Europe dominated the race and took the four top places in the result list in Contern.
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Lubomir Petrus
Photo: BKCP-Powerplus
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This year, due to the world cup race in Plzen, the best young riders of the country with a strong cycling tradition will be present in Luxemburg. They will be led by U23 National champion Lubomir Petrus who is a member of the BKCP-Powerplus team of former world champion Niels Albert. This summer, Petrus took part in the huge preparation program of his team on the road, taking among others a third place in a stage at the Circuito Montanes and the ninth position at the Czech National road championships in the elite category. He had already shown previously his strong abilities on the road by taking second place overall in the Tour d'Alsace (best young rider) down in 2009. Petrus hasn't shown up off-road this season yet, but has some serious references when it comes to cyclo-cross: he was European champion and Czech National champion in the junior category in 2008 as well as 3rd in the world championships the same year in Treviso, behind Jouffroy and a certain Peter Sagan. He has also won races in Hasselt and Asper-Gavere that year. In the U23 category, Lubomir Petrus has won among others the races in Wetzikon, and Namur and finished second in the world-cup races in Hoogerheide, Lievin and Treviso.
Tomas Paprstka is the reigning junior world champion. He had his day of glory in last janurary on the the fast and icy course in Tabor, when
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Tomas Paprstka
Photo: Tabor 2010
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he dominated the junior riders in the world and was faster than Frenchman Alaphilippe on the rush to the line. Paprstka hasn't been among the pre-race favourite since his references for that season were a 3rd pace in the Czech National championships, a 5th position in the world-cup in Zolder and a 6th one in Koksijde, the race that he had won the previous year. Actually, the young rider from Team Scott is above all a mountain-biker and only a few weeks ago, he was able to add another world championships medal to his palmares. Together with Kulhavy, Cink and Katarina Nash, Paprstka took third place in the team relay at the world games in Mont Saint-Anne in Canada, while he finished 14th of the individual junior race. He also finished 4th, 6th and 9th in various MTB world-cup races this summer. Concerning cyclo-cross, the young world champion will not be able to show his rainbow jersey very often as he moved up to the U23 category for this winter. During the month of September, after coming back from Canada, he took part in the races of the TOI-TOI cup in his home country with elite riders, taking 15th and 21st positions in Stribro and Louny, two races won by the other Czech world champion, Zdenek Stybar.
Michael Boros is last year's winner of the Grand-prix COMAT. 12 months ago, he dominated the junior race with nearly a minute advantage on second-placed
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Michael Borros
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Scott Thiltges. He was part of the Czech National team and, together with Paprstka, Polnicky, Nipl and Lasak, they took strong results in world-cup, Superprestige or GVA races. Boros finished several times in the Top 10, his best result being a 5th place in the world-cup of Hoogerheide. He also finished fifth in the Czech National championships, 9th in the Euopean championships in Hogstraten and 16th in the world championships at home, one position ahead of Luxemburg's Bob Jungels. After that, the rider from team Tabor moved to the U23 category and, this season, he took 13th and 16th places in the opening races of the TOI-TOI Cup.
Jan Nesvadba was National junior champion in 2009, a year that saw him also winning the overall classification of the TOI-TOI Cup in this category and climbing on the podium in the world-cup of Koksijde as well as in Tervuren and Gieten. For his first season in the U23 category, Nesvadba has already confirmed his abilities in elite-races, for example with a 7th place in Kolin, a 12th in the Czech National championships won by Stybar and the same place in the final overall rankings of the TOI-TOI Cup. This season, the young Czech also shows strength and after a medium-rated season opener in Stribro, the 12th place in Louny and the 9th in Unicov, two weeks ago, show that the form is coming.
Josef Soukoup is taking part in cyclo-cross races on a regular basis, but he is more of a road-racer, where he takes victories from time to time, like in Brugg, at the Mamut Tour or the King Bohmewald race. He was 5th at the Czech National championships 2009 and owner of the best climber jersey at the Tour of Turkey. In cyclo-cross, his best references are a 9th place in the U23 world championships 2001 as well as four Top 10 finishes in the Czech National championships.
From Germany, there will also be some riders of the young generation coming like Marcel Meisen, the former U23 National champion. It was in 2008 that he won the title, while he had to settle down on the following years with second place behind Sascha Weber. In the two last years, he was also 5th in the European championships, took several Top 5 places in big U23 events and finished as 3rd and 4th in the international elite race in Frankfurt. Meisen has had an outstanding road season with wins in the poinst competition at both the Tryptique Ardennais and the Nations Cup in Canada.
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Sascha Wagner
Photo: Team BMC
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This winter started for him in Belgium, when he took among others 2nd place in Stabroek, 9th position in the U23 Superprestige in Ruddervoorde as well as a victory last week-end in Eversel in a race for elite riders without professional contract.
Sascha Wagner (BMC Action) was the only one to be able to hang on to the Czech armada at last year's race in Contern and finished in 5th position. After that, the young rider took part in some world-cup events in the elite category, his best result being a 39th place in Treviso. During the last years, he finished respectively 2nd, 5th and 7th at the U23 German national cyclo-cross championships and took half a dozen of victories in various races. In 2008/2009, Sascha Wagner has won the overall classification in the national Deutschland cup series in the U23 category. He is a good rider on the road where he finished in 2009 5th of the U23 national championships and 12th overall at the Mainfranken Tour. In 2008, this rider with multiple skills was regional Hessen champion in no less than four different disciplins (road, cyclo-cross, time-trial and MTB). The member of the BMC Action team will be joined in Contern by a few of his team-mates like Sven Baumann as well as Patrick Schubert, professionnal road-racer for the Continental team DHL-Author in Poland. On the German-speaking side also, some young riders from Switzerland could have an influance on the outcome. Dario Stäuble was Swiss National junior champion in 2009 and, the same year, he finished 5th of the world-cup race in Nommay. In 2009/2010, for his first season as an espoir, Stäuble
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Pascal Triebel
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concentrated on the Swiss national races where he took 3 podium spots and half a dozen of Top 10 placings in various events. He also opened this season at home when he took a victory at the Swiss Cycling cup in the mud of Murgenthal. Other Swiss riders are Peter Frei and Pascal Lehmann, both of them being coached by the former winner of the GP COMAT Jan Ramsauer at the VC Hittnau. They will travel to Contern just like Dutch rider Kaj Slenter, 9th in last year's race.
Next to the foreign riders, the best Luxemburgish riders are of course also expected at the start, like Vincent Dias Dos Santos, the winner of the cyclo-cross in Dippach and Jérôme Juncker, winner in Kayl and at the season opener in Brouch. He was able to beat multiple
National champion Gusty Bausch on his home course, but despite a bad start into the season, Gusty always showed strong performances in Contern where he finished 10th last year and in very good 7th position in 2008, after having held onto the 5th place during most of the race. Alex Kirsch, brilliant third in Dippach as well as Scott Thiltges, two riders that are in their first season as U23 riders, will try to have a go for a good result, just like the experimented Tom Flammang, Olivier Laterza and, of course, evergreen Pascal Triebel.
In the junior category, there is also a Czech National team of five riders expected. Due to the absence of the sick National champion Vojtech Nipl, it will be led by Jakub Skala and Tomas Medek, respectively second and third in the Czech cyclo-cross rankings in this category. They will have to battle against the Luxemburgers as well as some Belgian riders like the twin brothers Diether and Laurens Sweeck who have completely dominated the begin of the season in their home country. It will be the first time this season that the best Belgian and Czech riders will race against each others in this category, both countries being amont the favourites at the European championships in Frankfurt, in two week's time.
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