January 30/00 8:07 am - Belgium take Gold at Worlds, Peter Wedge Reports from TDL

Posted by Editoress on 01/30/00
 

Belgian takes Gold at Junior World Cyclocross Championships
courtesy Chris Redden

Belgium takes home another gold at the Junior World Cyclocross Championships in Sint-Michielsgestel, Netherlands, but an American made him work for it. The Junior race got off to a fast start. Immediately a group of 14 riders dropped the rest of the field and stayed together for 2 laps. During lap 3 two riders, belgian Bart Aernouts and american Walker Ferguson, broke away, quickly putting 15 seconds between themselves and the group.

They stayed together, steadily increasing the gap on the chase group until the last allowable bike change of the race (near the end of lap 2), Aernouts took his and Ferguson didn't..... "Somehow it works out to be quicker to change your bike and get back in the race than to keep riding because after the change, Aernouts was ahead by 8 seconds" said Chris.

As the final lap started Aernouts gave it all he had and cruised over the finish line with 15 seconds clear on Ferguson. 3rd place was decided by a 4-up sprint and was taken by David Kasek of Czechoslovakia.

1. Bart Aernouts (BEL) 41:06
2. Walker Ferguson (USA) at 0:15
3. David Kasek (CZE) 0:47

no canadians attended

Notes: While the rain has quit, the mudholes have gotten increasingly larger as more and more riders navigate their way through them. These should prove to be interesting spectating spots this afternoon for the premier event. and speaking of spectators, Chris says the fans are amazing. There were close to 10 thousand watching this mornings race and more will come for the men's race. All of the usual characters are there, El Diablo is as much of a celebrity as many of the top riders. Cow bells bigger than basketballs, anything that will make noise and if you haven't a noisemaker you yell "the noise is deafening".


Peter Wedge reports from TDL

Please go to the Velo New Brunswick site and read Peter Wedge's report from Malaysia. Velo New Brunswick