GP de Belgique
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The World Cup 1999-99 RacesRound 1, GP de Suisse - Eschenbach, Switzerland, November 8, 1998 Round 2, GP de Czech Republic - Tabor, Czech Republic, November 21, 1998 Round 3, GP de Luxembourg - Leudelange, Luxembourg, December 6, 1998 Round 4, GP de Belgique - Koksijde, Belgium, December 20, 1998 Round 5, GP de Netherlands - Zeddam, Netherlands, January 3, 1999 Round 6, GP de France - Nonmay, France, January 17, 1999 Interview with Paul HerijgersSand specialist Paul Herijgers is racing a cross event in Essen and tomorrow he will be racing in Koksijde in the next round of the Cyclocross World Cup. He doesn't plan to win. He says his batteries are low. On Sunday, while the big hitters like Daniele Pontoni, Sven Nijs, Bart Wellens, Erwin Vervecken, Richard Groenendaal and Marc Janssens are battling it out at the front, Paul will be riding in the Belgian B-team. At least he has a chance to race again on the sand parcours where he won the 1995 World Championship. He commented: "I hope that I was not selected purely because I have won the Worlds on this course before. I hope it was because I have a chance to make the top 10.""I know I would be lucky to take a place. That I am a former world champion on this course will not help me much." His suppleness is now gone. Herijgers broods about that. "I am 36 but I am not over the hill yet. I can still put up a fight though. My body is nevertheless in working order. My knee is recovering, my elbow it is true is not very good, but that does not really stop me. In the kermesse races on the road I have been in good form, but perhaps in these races I have to often dig deep to remain competitive. But I began the season in good form - winning at Ardooie, third at Middelkerke, winning at Scorze in Italy, but since then I have had no luck." The skilful Herijgers has time to look back on his career which is fast coming to an end. "The worst thing for a cross rider is that you are very good all-round but without any radiance. You have to try to get the best out of yourself that you can. I have recently seen that in Peter Willemsens. I was not a great rider except in the sand. I was no Liboton who rode 5 km/h faster than anyone. I was like Danny De Bie, and Mario De Clercq - a one-time World Champion because we were able to win on courses which suited our special skills. I was good in the sand. De Clercq because he was a great road rider and dominated on a fast course, and De Bie because he was brilliant over the small hills." But how will Herijgers feel back in the sand. On Sunday will the adrenaline pump one more time. "Will I have some tricks for the sand? I don't know. I will ride with my hands on top of the bars. I will put the right amount of pressure in my tyres. I ride with tubes with small profile tyres and a width of 34 cms. It is important to get the right feel. Essentially the race will be in two sections - the first 45 minutes then the last 15 minutes where the top riders will emerge. It will come down to who can ride fast on the sand and then block." Herijgers knows that his head is definitely under the guillotine. From Januray 1 he will ride for the Spar-RDM team and he has a contract until 2000. "I will be talking to my new sponsor soon about my program. I will stop this cross season two months early, and rest and prepare for a new beginning. That will be my only chance for my last season. I think that Sven Nijs will be the rider to beat on Sunday. A good ride from both Nijs and Wellens. They do not need to watch anyone. They must attack." Race ReportA crowd of 6500 went to Koksijde in Belgium on Sunday to watch round 4 of the 1998-99 Cyclocross World Cup. They were not disappointed as a tough battle saw World Champion Mario De Clercq win at home. Now only 2 points separates the top 3 riders on the World Cup rankings with 2 races left to go.Round 4 was held in cold conditions on the coast of Belgium. Koksijde is near to the Belgian/French border and although dry the parcours was wet and sandy. The riders from 11 countries faces an 8 lap event over the sand dunes with each lap 2.54 kms long. As is typical on the sand the race was not fast and De Clercq won with an average time of 20.155 km/h for the 20.32 kms journey. The sandy course is suited to powerful rather than technical riders. The race began very quickly and 7 riders split the field immediately. At the end of lap one, it was the Dutch riders Adrie van der Poel, Richard Groenendaal and Wim de Vos, in company of the Belgians Mario De Clercq, Sven Nijs and Erwin Vervecken, with Czech Radomir Simunek in tow who had a gap on the rest of the field. The chasing riders were strung right out from the pressure of the start. The pace quickened again as the three Belgians accompanied by veteran Adri van der Poel worked well together to drop the other 3 riders in the top group. By the end of lap two they were now away and powering although into lap 3, Vervecken crashed. One of the fancied Belgians was 20-year old Bart Wellens. He had a miserable start and stormed through the field, revelling in the sand, and soon made contact with the top group of 3 riders. Chasing the 4 at the front were the solid group of Daniele Pontoni (Italy), Marc Janssens (Belgium), Richard Groenendaal, Peter Vanvliet (Belgium), Radomir Simunek and the recovered Vervecken. They were not, however, making any impression on the leading group. With 3 laps to go, Bart Wellens attacked while porting (there were 2 running sections of the race each lap) his bike up a 100 metre long sand dune. The sand dunes at Koksijde are huge. The attack stunned the other three. Over the top he had a gap of 10 seconds on De Clercq, 15 to Van der Poel and Nijs was blowing up and more than half a minute down. Nijs was showing vulnerability after a fantastic start to both the World Cup and Superprestige Trophy seasons. Italian Daniele Pontoni saw that Nijs was gone and joined him, sensing that he could perhaps gain some World Cup points back from Nijs. Nothing changed until the final lap. With only 2.5 kms to go, De Clercq mounted a charge on Wellens. He knew that if he could win this race with Nijs and Pontoni well down he could join them at the top of the World Cup points table. Wellens was visibly suffering from his early endeavour and De Clercq closed the gap. While Wellens had put the hammer down on the running section over the sand to make the break on lap 6, it was De Clercq who showed his power on lap 8. He passed Wellens, who then sought to keep his second place intact - looking behind rather than forward. He knew that De Clercq had defeated him. Sven Nijs remains in the lead of the overall World Cup but he had a miserable day. He is closely followed by Daniele Pontoni and De Clercq on the rankings. Pontoni and Nijs shadowed each other throughout the race. Round 4, Koksijde, 8 laps by 2.54 kms for 20.32 kms:1. Mario De Clercq (Bel) 1.00.28 (20.155) 2. Bart Wellens (Bel) 0.20 3. Adri van der Poel (Ned) 0.24 4. Daniele Pontoni (Ita) 0.53 5. Sven Nijs (Bel) 0.59 6. Marc Janssens (Bel) 1.01 7. Richard Groenendaal (Ned) 1.03 8. Erwin Vervecken (Bel) 1.13 9. Radomir Simunek (Cze) 1.15 10. Peter Van Santvliet (Bel) 2.20 11. Ben Berden (Bel) 2.22 12. Wim de Vos (Ned) 2.23 13. Maarten Nijland (Ned) 2.23 14. Thomas Frischknecht (Swi) 2.24 15. Bjorn Rondelez (Bel) 3.02 16. Jiri Pospisil (Cze) 3.20 17. Paul Herijgers (Bel) 3.12 18. Gerben de Knegt (Ned) 3.13 19. Peter Willemssens (Bel) 4.06 20. Roland Schätti (Swi) 4.13 21. Tadeusz Korzeniewski (Pol) 22. Beat Wabel (Swi) 23. Kamil Ausbuher (Cze) 24. Beat Blum (Swi) 25. Vaclav Jezek (Cze) 26. Malte Urban (Ger) 27. Emmanuel Magnien (Fra) Started: 53 Classified: 27 World Cup Standings after Round 4:
Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Total
1. Sven Nijs (Bel) 40 50 26 22 138
2. Mario De Clercq (Bel) 26 30 30 50 136
3. Daniele Pontoni (Ita) 20 40 50 26 136
4. Marc Janssens (Bel) 22 26 40 20 108
5. Richard Groenendal (Ned) 50 19 17 19 105
6. Adrie Van der Poel (Ned) 17 12 22 30 81
7. Erwin Vervecken (Bel) 14 18 20 18 70
8. Radomir Simunek (Cze) 16 15 19 17 67
9. Peter Van Santvliet (Bel) 18 13 16 16 63
10. Jiri Pospisil (Cze) 19 20 12 10 61
11. Wim De Vos (Ned) 13 11 18 14 56
12. Petr Dlask (Cze) 11 22 15 0 48
13. Maarten Nijland (Ned) 8 10 13 13 44
14. Beat Wabel (Swi) 30 0 14 0 44
15. Bart Wellens (Bel) 0 0 0 40 40
16. Roland Schätti (Swi) 15 6 10 6 37
17. Pavel Prosek (Cze) 10 16 0 0 26
18. Luca Bramati (Ita) 9 17 0 0 26
19. Gerben de Knegt (Ned) 0 0 11 8 19
20. Vaclav Jezek (Cze) 0 7 9 0 16
21. Ben Berden (Bel) 0 0 0 15 15
22. Zdenek Mlynar (Cze) 0 14 0 0 14
23. Christophe Morel (Fra) 6 0 7 0 13
24. Thomas Frischknecht (Swi) 0 0 0 12 12
25. Kamil Ausbuher (Cze) 12 0 0 0 12
26. Bjorn Rondelez (Bel) 0 0 0 11 11
27. Paul Herijgers (Bel) 0 0 0 9 9
28. Beat Blum (Swi) 0 9 0 0 9
29. Dominique Arnould (Fra) 0 0 8 0 8
30. Dieter Runkel (Swi) 0 8 0 0 8
31. Peter Willemssens (Bel) 0 0 0 7 7
32. David Pagnier (Fra) 7 0 0 0 7
33. Patrick Blum (Swi) 0 0 6 0 6
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