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Sluitingsprijs Oostmalle - C1
Oostmalle, Belgium, February 23, 2003
2002 Results Results Past winners
Berden wins season ender
Nijs takes Gazet van Antwerpen Trofee
Vlaanderen-T Interim rider Ben Berden has won the final cyclo-cross race of the season in Oostmalle, Belgium. On a beautifully sunny winter's day in front of thousands of spectators, Berden finished 7 seconds in front of World Champion Bart Wellens (Spaar Select), with Arne Daelmans (Vlaanderen) in third. Fourth was Sven Nijs (Rabobank), who gained enough points to keep the lead in the Gazet van Antwerpen Trofee, with Wellens finishing second overall.
Just as he did in yesterday's Superprestige race in Vorselaar, Bart Wellens attacked from the gun, hoping to give a knockout punch to the competition. But Wellens couldn't quite manage it today, as Ben Berden, Arne Daelmans, Sven Nijs and Richard Groenendaal could all follow him. But this five man leading group did not stay together for long, as Ben Berden quickly went on the attack, just as he did in Koksijde when he won his first big race of the season.
Berden could never get a big lead, but despite a concerted effort to chase by the others, the Vlaanderen rider did not give up. Wellens put in a big charge late in the race, but could not get closer than 50 metres, leaving Berden to take a very fine win and a well deserved won for his efforts this season, which saw him win six races.
Ben Berden was delighted with the win. "I have to thank more than my condition for this excellent day," he said. "More than anything the fact that we could ride in sand. That is really my speciality."
Berden is now looking at changing teams at the end of 2003, most probably to the new John Saey-Deschacht team run by Roger De Vlaeminck.
Results
Elite/U23 1 Ben Berden (Bel) Vlaanderen-T Interim 56.34 2 Bart Wellens (Bel) Spaar Select 0.07 3 Arne Daelmans (Bel) Vlaanderen - T Interim 0.30 4 Sven Nijs (Bel) Rabobank 1.31 5 Richard Groenendaal (Ned) Rabobank 1.42 6 Mario De Clercq (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 2.01 7 Peter Van Santvliet (Bel) Spaar Select 2.24 8 Sven Vanthourenhout (Bel) Quick Step-Davitamon 2.31 9 Erwin Vervecken (Bel) Spaar Select 3.23 10 Wim Jacobs (Bel) 3.32 11 Bart Aernouts (Bel) Rabobank 3.43 12 Cyrille Bonnand (Fra) ESP Persan 3.48 13 David Seco (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 3.51 14 Jonathan Page (USA) Richard Sachs 3.51 15 Geert Wellens (Bel) 4.19 16 Petr Dlask (Cze) Author Praha 4.22 17 Bert Vervecken (Bel) 4.58 18 David Laenen (Bel) WSCJR Booischot 5.14 19 Kris Wouters (Fra) WC Vorselaar 5.23 20 Tom Vannoppen (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 5.23 21 Maxime Lefebvre (Fra) CV Liévin 5.30 22 Vaclav Jezek (Cze) Author Praha 5.40 23 Paul Van Loon (Bel) 5.55 24 Eddy Van Bouwel (Bel) 6.05 25 Tom De Kort (Bel) 6.05 26 Mike Thielemans (Bel) 6.24 27 Christian Heule (Swi) Team Cologne 6.31 28 Kevin Pauwels (Bel) 7.18 29 Tim Van Huffel (Bel) 8.42 30 Radoslaw Czapla (Pol) 1 lap 31 Kris Smits (Bel) 32 Dariusz Gil (Pol) 33 Jorn Van der Veken (Bel) 34 Nick Sels (Bel) 35 Tadeusz Korzeniewski (Pol) 36 Jan Geerts (Bel) 37 Kevin Bossaerts (Bel) 38 Steven Sluyts (Bel) 39 Dirk Bertels (Bel) 40 Bart Thielemans (Bel) 41 Frank van Grootel (Ned) 42 Stig Geerts (Bel) 43 Tim Goris (Bel) 44 Peter Janssens (Bel) 45 Guy Bertels (Bel) Women 1 Daphny van den Brand (Ned) 41.11 2 Reza Hormes-Ravenstijn (Ned) 0.25 3 Anja Nobus (Bel) 0.30 4 Loes Sels (Bel) 0.53 5 Nicole De Bie-Leyten (Bel) 1.56 6 Nancy Bollansee (Bel) 2.16 7 Marianne Vos (Ned) 2.23 8 Nicole Kampeter (Ger) 9 Marianne Gall (Ned) 3.00 10 Greetje De Vos (Bel) 6.08 11 Christine Vardaros (USA) 12 Katrien Aerts (Bel) 13 Lieselot Sels (Bel) 14 Kelly Greefs (Bel) 15 Kim Winkelmans (Bel) 16 Ann Van Rechem (Bel) 17 Sandie Verriest (Bel) 18 Cori Page (USA) 18 starters Juniors 1 Niels Albert (Bel) 36.20 2 Slawomir Pituch (Pol) 0.52 3 Jeroen Dingemans (Bel) 1.00 4 Tom Van den Bosch (Bel) 1.12 5 Dieter Vanthourenhout (Bel) 6 Maxim Debusschere (Bel) 1.37 7 Harm Vandekerckhove (Bel) 2.38 8 Quincy Vens (Bel) 3.00 9 Kenn Geluykens (Bel) 3.40 10 Giljan Jacobs (Bel) 5.54 11 Koen Bertels (Bel) 12 Tim Milis (Bel) 13 Steffen Vanderhoydonck (Bel) 14 Carlo Kempeneers (Bel) 15 Dave Schuurmans (Bel) 15 starters Novices 1 Patrick Vliegen (Ned) 30.35 2 Jan Verhaagh (Ned) 0.17 3 Ben Arnouts (Bel) 0.30 4 Bart Senders (Ned) 0.42 5 Tom Meeusen (Bel) 0.55 6 Jan Arnouts (Bel) 1.07 7 Dries Pauwels (Bel) 8 Dennis Verhoeven (Bel) 1.35 9 Koen van Grootel (Ned) 2.47 10 Tom Lambrechts (Bel) 11 Jeffrey Maes (Bel) 12 Maarten Verherstraeten (Bel) 13 Dave De Cleyn (Bel) 14 Thomas Boeckx (Bel) 15 Bart Wouters (Bel) 16 Lorenzo Van Slycke (Bel) 17 Tom Oerlemans (Bel) 18 Kenny Van Heck (Bel) 19 Kevin Cant (Bel) 21 starters Cyclosportifs 1 Mario Lammens (Bel) 2 Jef Verbraeken (Bel) 3 Dirk Mertens (Bel) 4 Ronny Housen (Bel) 5 Sven Raeymakers (Bel) 6 Benny Van Staeyen (Bel) 7 Tom Wilmsen (Bel) 8 Ronny Couliez (Bel) 9 Nico Schroyen (Bel) 10 Jeroen Van Ham (Bel) 11 Patrick Wynants (Bel) 12 Benny De Busser (Bel) 13 Chris Maurien (Bel) 14 Gijs Jongeling (Ned) 15 Ken Smets (Bel) 25 starters Masters 1 Dirk Pauwels (Bel) 2 Walter Marijnissen (Bel) 3 Patrick Sluyts (Bel) 4 Johan Vanderaerden (Bel) 5 Danny Verherstraeten (Bel) 6 Ronny Lambrechts (Bel) 7 Mark Verloo (Bel) 8 Ronny Mertens (Bel) 9 François Mertens (Bel) 10 Wim Van den Bergh (Bel) 11 Jos Sas (Bel) 12 José Declercq (Bel) 13 Rudy Sels (Bel) 14 Edward Lievens (Bel) 15 Guy Geudens (Bel) 27 starters
Gazet van Antwerpen Trofee final standings
Elite 1 Sven Nijs (Bel) Rabobank 219 pts 2 Bart Wellens (Bel) Spaar Select 211 3 Mario De Clercq (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 194 4 Peter Van Santvliet (Bel) Spaar Select 180 5 Richard Groenendaal (Ned) Rabobank 147 6 Erwin Vervecken (Bel) Spaar Select 144 7 Tom Vannoppen (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 134 8 Arne Daelmans (Bel) Vlaanderen - T Interim 127 9 Gerben De Knegt (Ned) Rabobank 111 10 Ben Berden (Bel) Vlaanderen-T Interim 108 11 Sven Vanthourenhout (Bel) Quick Step-Davitamon 95 12 Christian Heule (Swi) Team Cologne 36 13 Davy Commeyne (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 24 14 Roger Hammond (GBr) Palmans-Collstrop 19 Elite without contract/U23 1 Wim Jacobs 124 pts 2 Tim Van Nuffel 90 3 Tom De Kort 69 4 Eddy Van Bouwel 64 5 Jonathan Page (USA) Richard Sachs 63 6 Geert Wellens 63 7 David Laenen (Bel) WSCJR Booischot 59 8 Kris Wouters (Fra) WC Vorselaar 56 9 Kevin Pauwels 40 10 Kevin Bossaerts 23 11 Jan Geerts 9
Past winners
Men 2002 Arne Daelmans (Bel) Vlaanderen-T-Interim 2001 Bart Wellens (Bel) Spaar Select 2000 Arne Daelmens (Bel)
