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The Belgian riders have largely dominated the 37th edition of the International Cyclo-cross of the ACC Contern and it is former junior World Champion an eventual U23 National champion Joeri Adams who has taken his first victory as a professionnal rider in a very convincing way. Lots of riders from the flat country have travelled to Contern and they took nine out of the 10 first places of the Grand-prix de la Commune de Contern, with only Dutch rider Corné Van Kessel as non-Belgian in the Top 10. There haven't been much spectators however on this beautiful automn day in Contern, a day that was maybe too sunny to travel to a cyclo-cross.
7th Grand-prix de la Commune de Contern:
As far as cyclo-cross fans can remember, the course around the rue de Moutfort in Contern has never been as dry as this year.
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Dusty ...
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The course workers had some trouble to fix the fences into the ground, during the weeks before the race and the wheels of the riders lifted up some dust and dirt on the race-day, compared to the usual muddy drops on the meadow at the entrance of Contern, where it is often very slippery. The race would be fast though, very fast with more than 26 km/h average speed, but nevertheless, it would not be easy. With the high speed racing, recovery sections were fewer and shorter than usual and, even though they were 39 riders at the start of the 7th Grand- prix de la Commune de Contern, only the stongest survived and a group of favourites broke away from the rest of the field as of the first lap.
It was Dutch rider Corné Van Kessel who was the fastest at the start, but quickly, his team-mate Rob Peeters
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Corné Van Kessel fastest at the start
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took over and at the end of the first lap, the rider from Telenet-Fidea had a few meters advantage on Jim Aernouts and Jan Denuwelaere. On the long road section, Peeters slowed down a little bit, allowing his two chasers and team-mate Joeri Adams to bridge up. Behind these four riders, Van Kessel rode with another Adams prenamed Jens, then Denolf, the astonishing Dutchman Ockeloen, Van den Bosch, Bossuyt followed. Vincent Dias Dos Santos from Luxemburg also has had a strong start inside the Top 10 positions, just behind the group with Van den Bosch, while Gusty Bausch was several spots behind. He did not have his best day due to problems with his shoulder.
The positions stayed quite the same during a few laps, even if Denolf and Ockeloen lost some ground, while Stijn Huys, Patrick Gaudy and Filip Adel moved up from behind, closing in to the first chasers. At the head of the race, the four leaders showed some huge action as especially
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Joeri Adams is leading ...
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the Telenet-Fidea riders were very offensive. They took advantage out of their numeric superiority with Adams and Peeters attacking one after the other, making a gap of a few metres and causing poor Denuwelaere to work hard in order to close it down again. The Belgian always had one of the two team-mates in his wheel, while Jim Aernouts seemed to ride at the limit and was of no help. During the fourth lap, the Fidea tactics proved right: Joeri Adams was able to break away and he quickly had twenty seconds advantage, establishing himself solo in hte lead. Behind him, Denuwelaere was again forced to work as Peeters played the tactic game and Aernouts tried to hang on to the wheels. Van Kessel and Jens Adams were still the next chasers, followed by another duo composed of Belgian elite without contract national champion Stijn Huys and Tom Van den Bosch. Behind them, there was a big group fighting for the positions containing Robby Cobbaert, Adel, Bossuyt, Patrick Gaudy from Wallonia,
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... ahead of Denuwelaere and Peeters ...
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strong riding Dias Dos Santos and Gianni Denolf. Still further back, behind Joeri Hofman, Gusty Bausch tried to limit the losseses together with his team-mate from LC Kayl, Benn Wurht, while Jérôme Juncker and Lex Reichling also tried to enter the Top 15 and fight for the position of best Luxemburgish rider.
At the front, Joeri Adams increased his advantage bit by bit on the chasers and soon, the clock showed more than 30 seconds gap. The former junior world champion took his title in the mud of Hoogled-Gits, but rather likes fast and dry courses like the one in Contern, with lots of ups and downs. Despite the tough profile of the course and lots of changes in rythm, he rode a steady pace towards mid-race. Behind him, Denuwelaere was still chasing alone with Peeters in his wheel while Aernouts had been dropped in the mean-time and found himself riding with Van den Bosch and Huys. Denuwelaere also was suffering and shortly after mid-race, Peeters also put in an acceleration who allowed him to get rid of the rider from Style & Concept.
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... as well as Huys, Van den Bosch, Aernouts
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He started to chase behind his team-mate and leader of the race, but wasn't able to close down the gap. The eventual Belgian U23 national champion was still holding on to his lead with more than forty seconds advantage on Peeters. Denuwelaere was another 15 seconds back and already felt in his back the breath of the next chasers, Huys, Van den Bosch and Aernouts. Then there was another trio composed by Patrick Gaudy, Mathias Bossuyt and Van Kessel, while Jens Adams lost some ground, just like Vincent Dias Dos Santos in fact. The rider from LC Tétange was now riding in eleventh place together with Gianni Denolf, while Gusty Bausch was another three spots behind, together with Filip Adel.
With two laps to go, Joeri Adams was virtually winner of the race, but there was still some suspense about the third step on the podium. Tom Van Den Bosch was riding in third place now, having put a gap between him and Huys and also having passed Denuwelaere, but the two other riders were not far behind him at the beginning of the last lap. Jim Aernouts was out of contention meanwhile, riding in sixth position, followed by his team-mate
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best Luxembourger Vincent Dias Dos Santos
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Mathias Bossuyt who put on a strong effort today. A little bit further down, Gusty Bausch was also moving up strongly, he passed Cobbaert, Filip Adel and Sascha Wagner and currently rode in thirteenth position, not far away from the rear wheel of Dias Dos Santos.
After 11 laps and a little bit more than an hour of racing, Joeri Adams has won the 7th Grand-prix de la Commune de Contern one minute and five seconds ahead of his team-mate Rob Peeters. Another fifteen seconds later, the third place was battled out in a sprint, Denuwelaere holding off Huys and Van den Bosch on the very last meters. Vincent Dias Dos Santos was first rider from Luxemburg after a strong ride in 12th position, around 30 seconds ahead of Gusty Bausch in thirteenth place. Benn Wurth, Jérôme Juncker, Lex Reichling and evergreen Pascal Triebel were other home riders who managed to finish in the same lap than the winner on positions 20 to 25.
24th Grand-prix COMAT:
One rider has clearly dominated in the Grand-prix COMAT. Sven Fritsch, who won already two years ago the race in the novice category,
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Sven Fritsch
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took the lead right from the start and rode alone at the head of the race, nearly a minute ahead of his team-mate Alec Lang. The next chasers among the juniors were Dan Mangers from SAF Zéisseng as well as two more riders from Tooltime Préizerdaul, Luc Turchi and Steve Redlinger, but they were already more than three minutes back. In the novice category, the gaps were smaller but the victory of Luxemburg's national champion Ken Muller was never in danger, too. The rider from LG Alzingen won the race 22 seconds ahead fo Belgian Sylvain Leonard, with Philipp Sunnen of LC Dippach being third, nearly a minute down on the winner. To be noted also a nice performance of Cédric Godart in ninth position, while it was only the second time that he rode a cyclo-cross bike, the first time having been the day before on the course pre-ride. One and only women was present at the start of the race and so it was only logical that Belgian Tine Dutoo was awarded with the flowers of best female rider of the day.
External links
report and video on rtl.lu
video by just4fun.lu
photos by just4fun.lu
report on lequotidien.lu
report on tageblatt.lu
report on mywort.lu
report on point24.lu
report on cyclocross.info
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