Great Pictures courtesy of Glenn : http://www.flickr.com/photos/marathonillustrator/
Today was one of the toughest and tactical races in Holland in a long time. With the Dutch National Championships finishing the day before, there were many fast but tired skaters. The course was different from last year, being held on a windy 1500mt smooth asphalt road, with one 400mt long straight and 3 left – right turns.
Podium: Angeline Thomas 2nd,Hilde Goovaerts 1st,Elma De Vries 3rd.
There was a lot of international flavor in the group today with Japans National Champion - Nachi Shinozuka, Netherlands Champion - Elma De Vries, Belgium’s Champion - Maaike Polspoel, Jessica Gaudesaboos, Britta Vantournhout and Hilde Goovaerts, and Australia’s Champion - Angeline Thomas. In the men’s, even more Nationalities with Belgiums World Inline Cup skater - Jasper Corne, Alain Gloor – Switzerland, Michael Byrne and Josh Lose – Australia, Ronan Sanchez – Spain and Shinki Yamamoto – Japan. As the Dutch had spent the last 3 days racing their National Track Chapionships, this sparked many break aways by the International skaters and those who did not contest the Championships.
Ladies Peleton on far sie of track.
In the Ladies group, break-away’s went from the gun, with Time Out’s – Britta Vantournhout (BEL) and Maaike Polspoel (BEL) being the first to attack. Jannitta Spigt (NED) soon caught it with Elma De Vries (NED) attacking straight after. After one of the Prem sprints, Elma De Vries and Angeline Thomas (AUS) got away for at least 3 laps until they were eventually caught. The whole race kept up like this until we lost half the group, one of those being Britta Vantournhout. 10 skaters remained in the leading group for the final rounds.
Angeline Thomas off the front for a prem sprint and break-away. Maaike Polspol in the distance.
As we crossed the line with 3 laps to go, the pace dropped dramatically- almost to a crawl, with no one wanting to lead. We came through the last corner on to the straight with 2 laps to go when out of no where; Britta Vantournhout came flying past us, making her way up the road. The whole group was stunned, wondering whether she was on the same lap as us or if she’d been lapped. As we were all in shock, Jannitta Spigt (NED) led for 1 lap, closing the gap right up but not quite enough, so Jessica Gaudesaboos (BEL) had to close the rest.
Hilde Goovaerts leads peleton. Maaike Polspoel and Anniek Ter Haar (Time Out) in view to right.
In the final lap, Anniek Ter Haar (NED) was leading coming out of the last corner with Elma De Vries, Angeline Thomas and Hilde Goovaerts on her wheel. Nachi Shinozuka fought to get in the group, but was quickly reminded of how she had skated weeks before and didn’t quite make it in. With 200mt to go, Elma De Vries jumped left and Angeline Thomas and team mate Hilde Goovaerts jumped right, with Angeline beating Elma to the front of the straight. As Angeline led out Hilde to the finish, Elma was right on Hilde’s wheel. It was a close lunge finish with CadoMotus taking the victory with 1-2, not sure of what order we finished but with Elma De Vries in 3rd.
Finish sprint - Hilde Goovaerts, Elma De Vries and Angeline Thomas.
Wolvega World on Wheels Ladies Results
1. Hilde Goovaerts (BEL) CadoMotus World
2. Angeline Thomas (AUS) CadoMotus World
3. Elma De Vries (NED) DSB
4. Maaike Polspoel (BEL) Time Out
5. Jessica Gaudesaboos (BEL) CadoMotus National
8. Jannitta Spigt (NED) CadoMotus World
For full Ladies results click here
Happy after the race; Angeline Thomas and Hilde Goovaerts with podium flowers.
In the mens event, extended to 1hour +5laps in Wolvega (over the regular criterium time of 45mins +5laps), a big field started out in the face of approaching rain, with skaters from Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Australia, France and Japan.
The smooth asphalt made for a fast race, with skaters taking a few laps to become familar with the tight left-right turns that acted as slowpoints in the opening laps but were quickly skated through by the group after a short time. Although the tight turns were difficult for some, it was the headwind that made the difference on the back side of the course, where a group of 10 skaters (with only the Habovo team having 2 skaters in the group) broke away and were never caught by the main field - who countered every effort from any team to place a second or third athlete in the breakaway group.
In the final laps, van der Wal's teammate Willem Hut (NED) gave him his cue to go, whereupon he took off from the breakaway with Jasper Corne (BEL) following. Van der Wal, just back from a 4-week absence from the competition with a broken collarbone, was too strong in the closing lap and held off Corne in the long finish to take the win. Corne in turn held off a fast finishing Cedric Michaud (FRA) and Alain Gloor (SUI) who took a close 3rd and 4th place respectively.
Cedric Michaud leads the peleton after the first turn. Michael Byrne in distance.
The bunch sprint was won by Sjoerd Huisman (NED) despite the best efforts of Shinki Yamamoto, Ronan Sanchez and Mark Horsten to take the sprint for team Timmerman/PS. Huisman maintains his lead in the overall classification from Roy Boeve who was 8th in the bunch sprint.
Wolvega World On Wheels Mens Results
1. Geert-Jan van der Wal (NED) Habovo
2. Jasper Corne (BEL) World Inline Center
3. Cedric Michaud (FRA) Nefit
7. Frank Fiers (BEL) Stouwdam/Unive - CadoMotus
Field Sprint -
11. Sjoerd Huisman (NED) Nefit
12. Michael Byrne (AUS) Stouwdam/Unive - CadoMotus
13. Christijn Groeneveld (NED) Hyper - CadoMotus
For full Mens Results click here.
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