Juan Alaphilippe stands atop the podium in Zolder ahead of David Van Der Poel and Mike Teunissen of the Netherlands. ©Bart Hazen
by Dan Seaton
Zolder, Belgium – The UCI World Cup returned to action in much milder conditions than last Sunday’s frozen, snowy race in Kalmthout. But on an already technical course on the Formula One track in Zolder, the remnants of last week’s storm were still apparent. The course was still slick—frozen in places—especially for the morning races: the Juniors and the Under-23’s.
In the first race of the day, French rider Juan Alaphilippe rode to an early lead and stayed away, as a large group of Belgian, Dutch, and Czech riders behind him focused on attacking each other and couldn’t close the sizable gap to the leader. World Cup Leader Gert-Jan Bosman took a hard fall early in the race and was forced to chase for much of the 40 minute race, closing the gap to the big chase group behind Alaphillipe, but never quite connecting with them.
In the chase, the Netherlands’ David Van Der Poel and Mike Teunissen, along with Belgian Laurens Sweeck, managed to open a small gap in the last lap of the race, taking second, third and fourth respectively over Czech rider Tomas Paprstka. Skyler Trujillo was the top American finisher in 33rd place.
By the time the Under-23 racers hit the course, on a rare clear December day in Belgium, the sun had warmed the ground, making for a muddier, but just as slick, race. Belgium’s Tom Meeusen, who stormed back from a fall last weekend to take victory in a non-World Cup race in Kalmthout, powered away from last year’s Junior World Champion Tijmen Eising and Italian Elia Silvestri to claim a solo victory.
Belgium’s Tom Meeusen follows a Dutch rider before taking the lead. ©Bart Hazen
In his victory, Meeusen relied on the same near-flawless bike handling that has carried him through a series of strong races over the past few weeks, first recovering from a slow start, then easily riding away from the rest of the race. Meeusen crossed the line well in front of his pursuers, taking time to celebrate a bit as he rolled across the line. Behind him, Silvestri attacked Eising just before the bell lap, gaining ground when Eising bobbled on a rutted and slick 180-degree turn just before the course returned to the road at the end of the circuit. Eising, the 2009 Junior World Champ, couldn’t respond, and Silvestri rode away to claim second place alone, some 15 seconds behind Meeusen.
American Danny Summerhill led the United States’ effort in the race, riding near twentieth place early in the race and finishing 25th.
Stay with cxmagazine.com for lots more from Zolder, including full results and photos.
Junior’s Photo Gallery:
U23 Photo Gallery:
Full Results:
U23:
Rank. Name – Nat. – Age* – Time
1. Tom MEEUSEN – BEL – 22 – 51:51:00
2. Elia SILVESTRI – ITA – 20 – 52:05:00
3. Tijmen EISING – NED – 19 – 52:15:00
4. Pawel SZCZEPANIAK – POL – 21 – 52:18:00
5. Cristian COMINELLI – ITA – 22 – 52:20:00
6. Marek KONWA – POL – 20 – 52:23:00
7. Joeri ADAMS – BEL – 21 – 52:27:00
8. Matthieu BOULO – FRA – 21 – 52:29:00
9. Micki VAN EMPEL – NED – 20 – 52:29:00
10. Kacper SZCZEPANIAK – POL – 20 – 52:34:00
11. Arnaud JOUFFROY – FRA – 20 – 52:54:00
12. Jan DENUWELAER – BEL – 22 – 52:56:00
13. Sascha WEBER – GER – 22 – 52:58:00
14. Kenneth VAN COMPERNOLLE – BEL – 22 – 52:59:00
15. Jim AERNOUTS – BEL – 21 – 53:13:00
16. Robert GAVENDA – SVK – 22 – 53:20:00
17. Lars VAN DER HAAR – NED – 19 – 53:29:00
18. Wietse BOSMANS – BEL – 19 – 53:34:00
19. Ramon SINKELDAM – NED – 21 – 53:41:00
20. Jiri POLNICKY – CZE – 21 – 53:46:00
21. Corne VAN KESSEL – NED – 19 – 53:58:00
22. Matteo TRENTIN – ITA – 21 – 53:58:00
23. Lubomir PETRUS – CZE – 20 – 54:05:00
24. Stef BODEN – BEL – 20 – 54:05:00
25. Daniel SUMMERHILL – USA – 21 – 54:41:00
26. Irwin GRAS – FRA – 19 – 54:45:00
27. Vincent BAESTAENS – BEL – 21 – 54:51:00
28. Karel HNIK – CZE – 19 – 54:54:00
29. Ruben VEESTRAETEN – BEL – 20 – 55:01:00
30. Valentin SCHERZ – SUI – 20 – 55:02:00
31. Kevin CANT – BEL – 22 – 55:06:00
32. Jonas Schau GUDDAL – DEN – 20 – 55:06:00
33. Jan NESVADBA – CZE – 19 – 55:07:00
34. Fabian DANNER – GER – 20 – 55:09:00
35. Arnaud GRAND – SUI – 20 – 55:12:00
36. Sven BEELEN – BEL – 20 – 55:20:00
37. Michael (JR) SCHWEIZER – GER – 19 – 55:53:00
38. Kevin EECKHOUT – BEL – 21 – 56:29:00
39. Zach MC DONALD – USA – 19 – 56:30:00
40. Travis LIVERMON – USA – 22 – 56:30:00
41. Kamil GRADEK – POL – 20 – 56:51:00
42. Yu TAKENOUCHI – JPN – 22 – 56:57:00
43. Filip ADEL – CZE – 20 – 57:18:00
44. Jerome TOWNSEND – USA – 21 – 57:22:00
45. Steve FISHER – USA – 20 – 57:22:00
46. Joshua BERRY – USA – 20 – 57:23:00
47. Naran KHANGARID – MGL – 21 – 57:26:00
48. Max WALSLEBEN – GER – 20 – 58:09:00
49. Marek CANECKY – SVK – 22 – 58:09:00
50. Karel NEPRAS – CZE – 20 – 58:12:00
51. Baasankhuu MYAGMARSUREN – MGL – 19 – 0:00:00
52. Matej MEDVED – SVK – 19 – 0:00:00
Junior Men
Rank. Name – Nat. – Age* – Result
1. Julian ALAPHILIPPE – FRA – 18 – 40:02:00
2. David VAN DER POEL – NED – 18 – 40:38:00
3. Mike TEUNISSEN – NED – 18 – 40:38:00
4. Laurens SWEECK – BEL – 17 – 40:38:00
5. Tomas PAPRSTKA – CZE – 18 – 40:43:00
6. Michiel VAN DER HEIJDEN – NED – 18 – 40:45:00
7. Tim MERLIER – BEL – 18 – 40:48:00
8. Jens ADAMS – BEL – 18 – 40:50:00
9. Matej LASAK – CZE – 18 – 40:51:00
10. Gert-Jan BOSMAN – NED – 18 – 41:06:00
11. Jens VANDEKINDEREN – BEL – 17 – 41:09:00
12. David MENUT – FRA – 18 – 41:12:00
13. Gianni VERMEERSCH – BEL – 18 – 41:13:00
14. Michael BOROS – CZE – 18 – 41:15:00
15. Frederik GEERTS – BEL – 18 – 41:27:00
16. Bart DE VOCHT – BEL – 18 – 41:27:00
17. Rudy LORENZON – ITA – 18 – 41:28:00
18. Vojtech NIPL – CZE – 17 – 41:45:00
19. Yannick ECKMANN – GER – 17 – 41:48:00
20. Andrea RIGHETTINI – ITA – 18 – 41:48:00
21. Wenzel BÖHM-GRÄBER – GER – 18 – 41:50:00
22. Joeri HOFMAN – BEL – 18 – 42:01:00
23. Radek POLNICKY – CZE – 18 – 42:07:00
24. Lars FORSTER – SUI – 17 – 42:07:00
25. Lukas MÜLLER – SUI – 18 – 42:13:00
26. Emilien VIENNET – FRA – 18 – 42:13:00
27. Danny VAN POPPEL – NED – 17 – 42:14:00
28. Hendrik SWEECK – BEL – 18 – 42:23:00
29. Julian LEHMANN – GER – 17 – 42:34:00
30. Floris DE TIER – BEL – 18 – 42:34:00
31. Daniel VESELY – CZE – 18 – 42:50:00
32. Fabian LIENHARD – SUI – 17 – 43:12:00
33. Skyler TRUJILLO – USA – 18 – 43:14:00
34. Maxim PANIS – BEL – 17 – 44:11:00
35. Emiel DOLFSMA – NED – 18 – 44:13:00
36. Dylan PAGE – SUI – 17 – 44:15:00
37. David KESSLER – USA – 17 – 44:30:00
38. Gabriel CHAVANNE – SUI – 18 – 44:34:00
39. Karl HOPPNER – CAN – 17 – 44:37:00
40. Tobias DEPRIE – GER – 18 – 44:38:00
41. Daniel MCLAY – GBR – 18 – 45:09:00
42. Bartosz PILIS – POL – 18 – 45:10:00
43. Chris WALLACE – USA – 18 – 45:24:00
44. Jeff BAHNSON – USA – 17 – 45:54:00
45. Jaroslav CHALAS – SVK – 18 – 46:27:00
46. Joshua LEHMANN – USA – 18 – 47:54:00
