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CYCLO-CROSS
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41st International CYCLO-CROSS
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WELCOME TO THE "VANTHOURENHOUT-SHOW"
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There were quite a few famous people at the 41st edition on the international cyclo-cross of the ACC Contern, from Benoît Joachim to Andy Schleck, Jempy Drucker or Johan Museeuw around the course, from the Chainel family to the Vanthourenhout family on the bike. U23 world champion Michael Vanthourenhout was of course the main attraction in the line-up and he didn't wait long to confirm his talent: as of the first passage in the woods, the rider who is famous for his fast starts put the pressure on, allowing only his brother Dieter to come back to the front. The two of them put on a fantastic show during 11 laps, turning around the course like a clockwork and shared the cake at the end, Dieter taking the win due to his exceptional technical skills ahead of brother Michael and the third man in the game, Steve Chainel.
11th GRAND-PRIX DE LA COMMUNE DE CONTERN 43 riders lined up for the main race on the renewed course in the rue de Moutfort in Contern.
At the end of the lap, Michael Vanthourenhout had a few meters advantage on Dieter and already several seconds on Chainel and Gil. Luc Turchi followed together with Stefano Museeuw and Felix Drumm, then Vincent Dias Dos Santos and Christian Helmig came ahead of Patrick Van Leeuwen and a whole bunch of Belgian and Czech riders. Good start though for most of the home riders, except for Gusty Bausch who was way behind the 20th spot together with Antonin Marecaille, another favourite for the Top 10. On the second lap, several duos formed at the head of the race:
At the front of the race, the Vanthourenhouts worked like a clockwork and changed the lead frequently, Michael setting the pace one lap and Dieter on the next one, still very fast and well ahead of Chainel. The latter still was on his own and after four laps of racing, he was already 30 seconds late on the two red jerseys in front of him. Behind the man from the Vosges region, a small group with in-form riders had formed: Belgian Vinnie Braet, Czech rider Michal Malik, Dutchman Van Leeuwen, Gil as well as U23 champion Felix Drumm. After them followed Ward van Laer and Dias Dos Santos, still inside the Top 10,
Shortly after mid-race, Quincy Vens was able to bridge up to the first chasing group together with Bart Hofman and is was now an impressive bunch of seven riders battling for fourth position, behind the three main contenders of the day: Braet, Vens, Gil, Van Leeuwen, Drumm, Hofman and Malik accelerated one after another, but none of them managed to get rid of the other riders. Behind them, Vincent Dias Dos Santos was passed by Czech rider Filip Eberl and threated by the return of Antonin Marecaille, so that he wasn't likely to get any UCI points today, despite his strong performance.
But one lap later, two mechanicals would slow down both Gusty Bausch and Steve Chainel: the rider from Luxemburg lost the wheel of Helmig again while the Frenchman now was nearly a minute late on the flying Vanthourenhouts. They were still impressive at the front and while Michael seemed slightly stronger than his brother on the tough portions, Dieter made up for it on the technical parts with his exceptionnal skills: he was for example the only one of the 43 contenders to bunny-hop the barriers. On the penultimate lap, Dieter created a small gap on Michael, a gap that the latter didn't close immediately. After a strong second place behind Wout Van Aert on the tough course in Kruibeke on the day before,
Dieter Vanthourenhout won the 11th edition of the Grand-prix de la Commune de Contern solo, for the second time after 2008, and 18 seconds ahead of Michael Vanthourenhout, who himself won the Grand-prix COMAT down in 2008, at the tender age of 15. Steve Chainel finished strongly and moved up again in the end, taking 3rd at 33 seconds and climbing on the podium of the race for the 3rd time in his career. Behind them, there was lots of suspense for fouth position, Felix Drumm taking it by a narrow margin in the last lap ahead of Patrick Van Leeuwen, who sprinted faster than suprising Bart Hofman and Mariusz Gil. Quincy Vens, Antonin Marecaille, Michal Malik and Vinnie Braet were also very close behind them on the positions 8 to 11, while a strong Vincent Dias Dos Santos took 13th place and the position of best home rider, one place and twenty seconds ahead of National champion Christian Helmig. Gusty Bausch finished 19th at nearly 5 minutes, while Luc Turchi was also able to finish the race inside the same lap of the winner, 22nd in the rakings.
28th GRAND-PRIX COMAT With 49 participants, the line-up of the Grand-prix COMAT was also well crowded and compared to previous years, the
They were five leading though, three Belgians (Vrachten, Beckaert, Liessens) and the two Felix from Luxemburg (Schreiber and Keiser). Arne Vrachten felt strong and he attacked in the third lap, taking the lead on his own. After a lap of hesitation, it was finally Jarno Liessens who made the effort: he brigded up to Vrachten in the penultimate lap and left him behind a little bit later, leading ahead of the Telenet-Fidea duo and of the two riders from Luxemburg with one lap to go.
In the women's competition, there wasn't as much suspense as in the junior race because Thalita de Jong was clearly stronger than the other pre-race favourite, Lucie Chainel. De Jong has an excellent road season behind her with amongst other a stage win in the Dutch Ladies Tour as well as bronze medals in World and European championships, and she started her cross season with a victory in Ardooie, ahead of most of the world's best ladies. Chainel on her side didn't race much on the road this year and she is expected to peak only later in the season for National and World championships. After one lap of racing, Chainel raced together with Linda Ter Beek and Joyce Vanderbeken, but they were 30 seconds behind De Jong, the Rabobank Liv rider who had already bridged up to some of the juniors that had started a minute earlier than her. Behind the chasing trio, Suzanne Verhoeven was riding in fifth position ahead of the best home rider Suzie Godart.
If the name of the winner was already about certain after the first lap, the battle for second place was very tense until the end between Lucie Chainel and Linda Ter Beek, who had made some strong results this season for example in Switzerland. Chainel was technically better than Ter Beek, but the former double French champion had to wait until the last lap to get rid her Dutch rival, taking second place nearly three minutes (!) behind Thalita De Jong.
In the novice race, the victory was decided only at the very end between Arthur Kluckers and Nicolas Kess and it was a mechanical problem that proved decisive with 300 meters to go. Kess, winner in Kayl and Dippach, as fastest off at the start and after one lap, he had several seconds advantage on Cedric Pries, Jordy Wagner and Arthur Kluckers, winner of the season opener in Brouch. But Kluckers was able to bridge up to the leader during the second lap, taking his team-mate Pries with him. The three of them were still together with one lap to go and, with Pries not being able to match the pace in the last lap, the decision was likely to fall in a two-man sprint between Kess and Kluckers. But just before the entrance of the last material pits, with less than 300 metres to go, the chain of Nicolas Kess dropped and Arthur Kluckers was able to get away, taking his second victory of the season ahead of Kess and Pries.
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