Hilde Goovaerts 4th in Rennes Marathon as Gegner and Schneider win.

Sorry it’s taken so long to post. If you managed to watch any of the footage from the WIC coverage, you would have seen the conditions were pretty bad. It rained on and off all day with the course drying minutes before the start of the ladies marathon. With everyone not knowing whether it was going to rain again or not, we decide to wear Hyper Stripes which are wheels that work in the wet and dry.

L to R: Before the race we had an interview with the French Inline Cup magazine. Jannitta, Jessica, Angeline and Hilde

What a great result for our second World Inline Cup race with Hilde getting away with the break group to place 4th in the finish. The race was fast from the start with the likes of Nicole Begg (NZ) and Nadine Gloor (SUI) attacking at every chance they could. Hilde skated like a trooper staying on all the attacks and making sure she didn’t do too much work for the finish. It rained half way through with most of the girls finding it tough in the wet. Teams such as Athleticum had the wrong wheels for the wet, using the MPC pink VT wheels. Hilde said she struggled when it was dry but as soon as the rain came, the stripes worked great. With 10 laps to go, there were only 6 skaters left in the peleton strong enough to contest the tough wet, dry and windy conditions - 3 rollerblade, Jana Gegner (GER), Nicole Begg (NZ) and Cado Motus’ Hilde Goovaerts (BEL). It stopped raining enough for the ground to dry for the finish.

L: Jessica and Angie wait at the start. R: The start of the Ladies Marathon

Before the last turn, Rollerblade was setting up to lead out one another when Nicole Begg (NZ)jumped the group with Jana Gegner (GER) right on her wheel. About 300mt from the finish Gegner passed Begg sprinting her to the line to take the win with Begg 2nd and Tamara Lorens (ARG) 3rd. Hilde didn’t quite get to Lorens, but gave her a good run to get the best result for our team this season and her best individual WIC result in 4th.

Top: Angie after she crashed in the first lap R: Angie chasing solo.

Middle: The peleton with Tamara Llorens (ARG) Rollerblade leading, Hilde 3rd from the back. R: Tina Struever (GER) Bont leading with Hilde following and Melissa Bonet (ARG) WorldInlineCentre.

Bottom: With 1 lap to go, Rollerblade in the lead with Hilde in 3rd and Jana Gegner (GER) in the yellow Zepto suit to her left. R: Jessica Gaudesaboos in the orange CadoMotus suit at the beginning of race.

Now, on to some not so nice news. Basically my race was not so peachy. I was feeling good to go and pretty positive that we could get a good result. Straight off the start it was fast and I was on the back line. I was far over to what I thought was the side of the road when all of a sudden some girl tried to fit between me and the curb, taking both my feet out from under me. I landed hard on both my knees and supporting the rest of my weight, landed on my left arm as I hit the ground. I then had to do, what felt like a time trial for 16km. I was skating hard but felt like I was going no where. It wasn’t until later I was told that I was doing the same time as the group on my own, but by that time couldn’t close the gap. I was hurting pretty bad so Desly Hill, our coach, said to stop. So in a nut shell, I drove 16hrs in two days, just to race 20min on my own. But all the pain went away when Hilde’s efforts put our team in the top 5.




Nicole Begg (NZ) starting her sprint a bit too early with Jana Gegner(GER) to her right, Tamara Llorens (ARG) in 3rd and Hilde Goovaerts (BEL) in 4th.

Rennes Ladies Marathon

1. Jana Gegner (GER) Zepto
2. Nicole Begg (NZ) SsanyYoung Bont
3. Tamara Llorens (ARG) Sportvital RB
4. Hilde Goovaerts (BEL) CadoMotus World
5. Michaela Neuling (GER) Sportvital RB

Rennes Mens Marathon

1. Roger Schneider (SUI) Athleticum
2. Shane Dobbin (NZ) Sportvital RB
3. Max Presti (ITA) Bont
4. Diego Rosero (COL) Sportvital RB
5. Fabien Hascoet (FRA) Sportvital RB