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CYCLO-CROSS
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40th International CYCLO-CROSS
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VAN AMERONGEN WINS THRILLER RACE
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As long as most of us can think,
10th GRAND-PRIX DE LA COMMUNE DE CONTERN The UCI calendar has been on the side of the ACC Contern this year and lots of foreign riders were keen on participating in the Grand-prix de la Commune de Contern, the elite and U23 race of the 40th international cyclo-cross race organized by the ACC Contern. The reverse side of the medal was that all these riders well placed in the UCI rankings seemed to have frightened the home riders since they were only 5 (!) to line up in the field of 42 starters of the main race. As usual, a strong Sascha Weber was fastest off the starting blocs but he was soon passed by Thijs Van Amerongen who led throught the meadow for the first lap. Only a few rain drops had fallen down on the last day on this meadow and it was dry and fast though for what showed out to be a very tactical race.
At the front, Vojtech Nipl, Sascha Weber and Daan Soete seemed very strong, they led the race one after another and set a fierce speed. The former Czech junior champion was very impressive, he was the only staying on his bike at the short and steep climb where all the other riders put their feet on the ground. Each time, Nipl made a little gap on this very technical portion, a gap that Weber and Soete closed as soon as possible, followed by the other contenders for the victory. With all these accelerations, the speed was very high and the leading group strung out and lost a few of his members, without really splitting though. Former Polish champion Mariusz Gil was the first to fall off, followed by Eddy Van Ijzendoorn and Daan Hoeyberghs who were replaced by Patrick Gaudy. The winner of last year's race was very strong, he had left Schuermans and Van Leeuwen behind him and was on his way to bridge up to the leaders. This were certainly not his favourite conditions: the heat and the high speed on the bumpy grass were the main obstacles for the riders and not cold and rain on the muddy courses he likes, but after two laps of chasing, Gaudy was back at the front.
Surprise during the fourth lap of the lace when, after another acceleration of Vojtech Nipl, pre-race favourite Thijs Van Amerongen fell out of the leading group. The former Dutch champion didn't seem at his best and rode at around twenty seconds behind the leaders, between the group of seven formed by Nipl, Soete, the Adams duo, Van der Poel and the two Veranclassic-Doltcini riders Sascha Weber and Patrick Gaudy, and another group of three with Gil, Van Ijzendoorn, Schuermans et Van Leeuwen. Behind this group, Jan Denuwelaere was moving up in a quite spectacular way and was riding ahead of the young riders De Groote and Jansen, but he would soon fade away and abandon
Encouraged by his new sports director Niels Albert, who isn't an active rider any more since this spring due to heart problems, Jens Adams accelerated around mid-race with Sascha Weber glued to his wheel. The two of them looked strong and quickly had an advantage of 50 meters, but it took multiple Dutch champion David Van der Poel only half a lap to come back on them, with Nipl, Soete and Gaudy shortly behind them and Joeri Adams a little bit further off after a minor crash. Chance wasn't really on the side of the Adams family today because shortly after that, Jens also lost contact to the leading group and lots of time after a double flat, far away from the pits. Nipl and Weber were still very active at the head of the race but it was now the German rider who had bad luck, because while leading the race, his chain dropped off, leaving him with hurt fingers and several seconds of time loss. And who took advantage of all this? It was Thijs Van Amerongen who had managed to overcome his bad moment and had a morale boost when he passed the Adams brothers and bridged up to Weber on his way back into the race lead, with one lap to go.
They were six toghether at the front at the bell, for a dramatic last lap: Vojtech Nipl and David Van der Poel, the two most constant riders in the group, Daan Soete and Thijs Van Amerongen from the Telenet-Fidea team as well as Sascha Weber and Patrick Gaudy, the Veranclassic-Doltcini duo. While father Adrie was watching from the pits, David Van der Poel attacked at the entrance of the meadow, but was soon reeled in by Van
27th GRAND-PRIX COMAT The FSCL rules have changed quite a bit for this year, allowing the masters to line-up int he junior race now and the 27th edition of the Grand-prix COMAT
After 39 minutes and a half of racing, Floran Coquelet has won the 27th edition of the Grand-prix COMAT solo, 36 seconds ahead of the first masters rider in the race,
If there wasn't any with the ladies, there was well some suspense in the novice race, although Felix Schreiber led the race from the beginning to the end. The actual National champion and last year's winner of the race showed a strong race and was riding together with Luxemburg's best junior rider in the race, Gilles Roulling, although he started a minute later, but he didn't manage to get really rid of Misch Leyder, the rider from VC Diekirch who was only a few seconds back on him and was threatening more and more his lead. At the end, Felix Schreiber finished 11 samll seconds ahead of Leyder for his second win in two years in the Grand-prix COMAT. Arthur Kluckers took third place, more than a minute late on the leaders but well ahead of the next-place rider who was his teammate Cedric Pries. All the other riders were more than five minutes behind the winner of the race.
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