Laurens Sweeck takes the win in the Juniors race. © Bart Hazen
by Bart Hazen
Telenet-Fidea’s Vincent Baestaens has won the U23 World Cup in Kalmthout, Belgium, with a slight margin over home rider Wietse Bosmans and European Champion Lars van der Haar. Elia Silvestri, Mathieu Boulo, Joeri Adams, Tijmen Eising, Mike Teunissen, Gianni Vermeersch and Arnaud Grand completed the international top ten. For Baestaens it’s his second consecutive World Cup win as he also won the opening round in Koksijde. Daniel Summerhill was the best American in 21st. Zach McDonald (23rd), Jerome Townsend (42nd), Joseph Schmalz (49th) and Steve Fischer (52nd) were the other Americans completing the race. Chris Hurst abandoned.
As usual it was Lars van der Haar who started the best and his efforts quickly broke the front group apart. Van der Haar broke clear with Vincent Baestaens and Wietse Bosmans. Elia Silvestri, Tijmen Eising, Joeri Adams, Jim Aernouts, Arnaud Grand and a few others were trying to follow but didn’t succeed. Despite a small crash involving Wietse Bosmans and Lars van der Haar, the three turned into the final lap together. In the final technical sections of the final lap Baestaens created a small gap on his rivals to add another win to his season account.
The win comes after yesterday’s good showing for Baestaens in the Scheldecross in Antwerp. Fifteenth in the elite race is a good result, but Baestaens admitted he maybe shouldn’t have ridden that race. “In the beginning of today’s race I felt yesterday’s efforts. I gave all I had in that race while most of the other U23 riders didn’t compete. Therefore I had a slow start. In every corner I lost a few meters on Van der Haar. When I changed tires and got to ride on rhino’s it went much better. I rode away from my rivals in the final lap taking some risks, luckily I was able to round it off.”
Home rider Wietse Bosmans once again finished second. Last week in Essen, in his home region as well, he was second behind Van der Haar. “Of course I preferred to win, but I am satisfied. It was a very tactical race in which small mistakes decided the race. I felt very strong today but wasn’t able to get rid of Lars and Vincent. Vincent turned into the woods as first and wasn’t able to challenge him.”
Laurens Sweeck dominates Kalmthout World Cup
Belgian Laurens Sweeck has won the second race of the Juniors World Cup in Kalmthout. Sweeck won with an 8 seconds lead on Daniel Peeters and 10 seconds on his twin brother Diether, recreating the podium in the Koksijde World Cup earlier this season. Clement Venturini, European Champion Lars Förster, Yannick Eckmann, Vojtech Nipl, Jakub Skala, Federico Zurlo and Tomas Medek rounded out the top 10. Due to his win in the first round of the World Cup in Koksijde Laurens Sweeck extends his lead on Daniel Peeters and his brother.
The snowy, icy course in Kalmthout made it a very fast race. German Yannick Eckmann had the fastest start of the whole bunch and quickly created a gap followed by Laurens Sweeck, Diether Sweeck, Daniel Peeters, Clement Venturini, Federico Zurlo and Jaap de Man.
Eckmann clearly had a good day and kept forcing the pace. Together with Laurens Sweeck and Clement Venturini he was giving the best impressions. Turning into the penultimate lap seven riders had a chance to win the World Cup namely; Laurens Sweeck, Diether Sweeck, Daniel Peeters, Yannick Eckmann, Clement Venturini, Vojtech Nipl and European Champion Lars Förter. Halfway through the penultimate lap Laurens Sweeck created a gap after Eckmann slipped in a corner. Turning into the final lap Sweeck had a gap of about 20 seconds on Peeters, D. Sweeck, Venturini and Eckmann. Sweeck didn’t made any mistakes and took his second consecutive World Cup win, extending his lead on the overall World Cup
“This is a beautiful birthday present”, smiled Laurens who, just as twin brother Diether, had their 17th birthdays last Friday. “In the penultimate lap Eckmann made a mistake and I was able to create a gap. I hope I can end up on the podium in the three remaining World Cups as well to maintain my leader’s position. It is beautiful for the coach (Rudy de Bie) that three Belgians ended up on the podium today. At the European Championships we failed but we already showed in the two World Cups that this was a coincidence.”
Photo Gallery
Full Results
U23
| Place | Name | Country | Time |
| 1 | BAESTAENS Vincent | BELGIUM | 0:49:42 |
| 2 | BOSMANS Wietse | BELGIUM | +00:02 |
| 3 | VAN DER HAAR Lars | NETHERLANDS | +00:02 |
| 4 | SILVESTRI Elia | ITALY | +00:17 |
| 5 | BOULO Matthieu | FRANCE | +00:19 |
| 6 | ADAMS Joeri | BELGIUM | +00:19 |
| 7 | EISING Tijmen | NETHERLANDS | +00:35 |
| 8 | TEUNISSEN Mike | NETHERLANDS | +00:37 |
| 9 | VERMEERSCH Gianni | BELGIUM-B | +00:39 |
| 10 | GRAND Arnaud | SWITZERLAND | +00:39 |
| 11 | VAN EMPEL Micki | NETHERLANDS | +00:53 |
| 12 | DE BIE Sean | BELGIUM | +00:59 |
| 13 | TRENTIN Matteo | ITALY | +01:01 |
| 14 | BRAET Vinnie | BELGIUM | +01:02 |
| 15 | AERNOUTS Jim | BELGIUM | +01:27 |
| 16 | VAN DEN BRAND Twan | NETHERLANDS | +01:32 |
| 17 | KONWA Marek | POLAND | +01:33 |
| 18 | MERLIER Tim | BELGIUM-B | +01:33 |
| 19 | HANSEN Kenneth | DENMARK | +01:33 |
| 20 | QUAST Ole | GERMANY | +01:43 |
| 21 | SUMMERHILL Daniel | UNITED STATES | +01:57 |
| 22 | VAN DER HEIJDEN Michiel | NETHERLANDS | +01:58 |
| 23 | MCDONALD Zach | UNITED STATES | +02:24 |
| 24 | POLNICKY Jiri | CZECH REPUBLIC | +02:25 |
| 25 | DE CLERCQ Angelo | BELGIUM-B | +02:30 |
| 26 | PAPRSTKA Tomas | CZECH REPUBLIC | +02:31 |
| 27 | DIAS DOS SANTOS Vincent | LUXEMBOURG | +02:31 |
| 28 | ADAMS Jens | BELGIUM-B | +02:33 |
| 29 | BOROS Michael | CZECH REPUBLIC | +02:37 |
| 30 | WINTERBERG Michael | SWITZERLAND | +02:39 |
| 31 | BRAIDOT Luca | ITALY | +02:39 |
| 32 | NESVADBA Jan | CZECH REPUBLIC | +02:44 |
| 33 | POLNICKY Radek | CZECH REPUBLIC | +02:47 |
| 34 | TABACCHI Mirko | ITALY | +03:14 |
| 35 | GRAS Irwin | FRANCE | +03:18 |
| 36 | DUMANCHIN Théo | FRANCE | +03:19 |
| 37 | WALSLEBEN Max | GERMANY | +03:23 |
| 38 | DE TIER Floris | BELGIUM-B | +03:24 |
| 39 | TURGIS Jimmy | FRANCE | +03:25 |
| 40 | BEELEN Sven | BELGIUM-B | +03:33 |
| 41 | HERBA Wojciech | POLAND | +03:34 |
| 42 | TOWNSEND Jerome | UNITED STATES | +03:50 |
| 43 | SCHERZ Valentin | SWITZERLAND | +03:50 |
| 44 | MENUT David | FRANCE | +04:33 |
| 45 | GUDDAL Jonas Schau | DENMARK | +04:37 |
| 46 | GRAND Anthony | SWITZERLAND | +04:40 |
| 47 | STAUBLE Dario | SWITZERLAND | +04:51 |
| 48 | SCHLECHTER Pit | LUXEMBOURG | +04:56 |
| 49 | SCHMALZ Joseph | UNITED STATES | +05:38 |
| 50 | DANNER Fabian | GERMANY | +05:47 |
| 51 | PETRUS Lubomir | CZECH REPUBLIC | +05:47 |
| 52 | FISHER Steve | UNITED STATES | +05:58 |
| 53 | ANTKOWIAK Piotr | POLAND | +06:01 |
| 54 | THILTGES Scott | LUXEMBOURG | +06:08 |
| 55 | MEISEN Marcel | GERMANY | -3LAP |
Juniors
| Rank | NAME / First Name | Team | Time |
| 1 | SWEECK Laurens | BELGIUM | 0:36:51 |
| 2 | PEETERS Daniel | BELGIUM | +00:08 |
| 3 | SWEECK Diether | BELGIUM | +00:10 |
| 4 | VENTURINI Clément | FRANCE | +00:15 |
| 5 | FORSTER Lars | SWITZERLAND | +00:17 |
| 6 | ECKMANN Yannick | GERMANY | +00:17 |
| 7 | NIPL Vojtech | CZECH REPUBLIC | +00:18 |
| 8 | SKALA Jakub | CZECH REPUBLIC | +00:33 |
| 9 | ZURLO Federico | ITALY | +00:37 |
| 10 | MEDEK Tomas | CZECH REPUBLIC | +00:37 |
| 11 | JAUREGUI Quentin | FRANCE | +00:37 |
| 12 | HERKLOTZ Silvio | GERMANY | +00:39 |
| 13 | DE MAN Jaap | NETHERLANDS | +00:42 |
| 14 | VAN TICHELT Yorben | BELGIUM | +00:43 |
| 15 | DOUBEY Fabien | FRANCE | +00:43 |
| 16 | RODRIGUEZ GUEDE Pablo | SPAIN | +00:53 |
| 17 | BOUVARD Kévin | FRANCE | +00:54 |
| 18 | VANDEKINDEREN Jens | BELGIUM | +00:57 |
| 19 | VANTHOURENHOUT Michael | BELGIUM | +00:58 |
| 20 | AERTS Toon | BELGIUM-B | +01:03 |
| 21 | SAMPARISI Lorenzo | ITALY | +01:08 |
| 22 | SOETE Daan | BELGIUM | +01:15 |
| 23 | VERBERNE Douwe | NETHERLANDS | +01:23 |
| 24 | LIENHARD Fabian | SWITZERLAND | +01:28 |
| 25 | GODRIE Stan | NETHERLANDS | +01:34 |
| 26 | BOHATA Tomas | CZECH REPUBLIC | +01:42 |
| 27 | VAN DE VELDE Matthias | BELGIUM-B | +01:48 |
| 28 | HOEYBERGHS Daan | BELGIUM-B | +01:53 |
| 29 | FRISCHKNECHT Andri | SWITZERLAND | +01:54 |
| 30 | MALEC Wojciech | POLAND | +02:09 |
| 31 | PAGE Dylan | SWITZERLAND | +02:09 |
| 32 | TURGIS Anthony | FRANCE | +02:12 |
| 33 | WEIJERS Koen | NETHERLANDS | +02:13 |
| 34 | SEIGLE Romain | FRANCE | +02:17 |
| 35 | VAN POPPEL Danny | NETHERLANDS | +02:25 |
| 36 | VAN AERT Wout | BELGIUM-B | +02:25 |
| 37 | SLATER Alistair | GREAT BRITAIN | +02:37 |
| 38 | MÜLLER Steffen | GERMANY | +02:44 |
| 39 | HOPPNER Karl | CANADA | +02:57 |
| 40 | ZUMSTEIN Dominic | SWITZERLAND | +03:00 |
| 41 | SUAREZ Kevin | SPAIN | +03:01 |
| 42 | CLAES Jorn | BELGIUM-B | +03:01 |
| 43 | LOUVAR Ondrej | CZECH REPUBLIC | +03:05 |
| 44 | FOX Bjorn | UNITED STATES | +03:10 |
| 45 | SCHWARMES Tom | LUXEMBOURG | +03:19 |
| 46 | ROBINSON Hugo | GREAT BRITAIN | +03:21 |
| 47 | SVOBODA Tomas | CZECH REPUBLIC | +03:24 |
| 48 | GRUNER Yannick | GERMANY | +03:31 |
| 49 | GODBY Zane | UNITED STATES | +03:32 |
| 50 | KOSTECKI Patryk | POLAND | +03:35 |
| 51 | CLARKSON Jack | GREAT BRITAIN | +03:40 |
| 52 | SCAPOLAN Enrico | ITALY | +04:06 |
| 53 | VERSCHUEREN Timo | BELGIUM-B | +04:11 |
| 54 | OLSEN Emil Arvid | DENMARK | +04:14 |
| 55 | MOSES Joseph | GREAT BRITAIN | +04:33 |
| 56 | MALEWICZ Marcin | POLAND | +04:37 |
| 57 | REINERT Jimmy | LUXEMBOURG | +04:41 |
| 58 | DILLMAN Andrew | UNITED STATES | +04:42 |
| 59 | LEHMANN Julian | GERMANY | +04:55 |
| 60 | FRITSCH Sven | LUXEMBOURG | +04:56 |
| 61 | GORRY Cypress | UNITED STATES | +05:06 |
| 62 | WOLKIEWICZ Kamil | POLAND | +05:30 |
| 63 | SZYNIEC Wojciech | POLAND | +05:39 |
| 64 | KRUX Ben | LUXEMBOURG | +05:49 |
| 65 | MEIJERS Jeroen | NETHERLANDS | +05:54 |
| 66 | PREBLE Kolben | UNITED STATES | -3LAP |
