GP Diegem, Super Prestige Trophy, Round 8Belgium, December 27, 1998 |
Preview
Report
Results
Standings
The 1998-99 Super Prestige CupRound 1, Ruddervoorde, Belgium, October 24, 1998 Round 2, Asper, Belgium, November 15, 1998 Round 3, St. Michielsgestel, Netherlands, November 22, 1998 Round 4, Gieten, Netherlands, November 29, 1998 Round 5, Silvelle, Italy, December 8, 1998 Round 6, Overijse, Belgium, December 13, 1998 Round 7, Hoogstraten, Belgium, December 23, 1998 Round 8, Diegem, Belgium, December 27, 1998 Round 9, Surhuisterveen, Netherlands, December 30, 1998 Round 10, Wetzikon, Switzerland, January 24, 1998 Round 11, Harnes, France, February, 7, 1998 Sven Nijs to defend against Bart WellensThe 8th round of the Super Prestige Trophy will be raced in the Belgian village of Diegem, which is just inside the Brussel ring near to Zaventem, the main airport. Not a particularly great place to have a bike race. Belgian star rider Sven Nijs now has to defend his place in the points table after storming away to an early lead in the first 4 rounds.Nijs remains level-headed though: "My lead is delightful but it will take only one race where I have a setback or a fall and the outlook is suddenly changed. I am remaining cautious but on Sunday I will be going hard for the win to repay the loyalty of all my supporters." The biggest threat to Nijs, is his arch-rival in the Under-23 rankings in recent years, Bart Wellens. He can, perhaps, consolidate his threat on the overall rankings by repeating his last performance. He was very strong in Hoogstraten. The 20-year old Wellens shall try for his second win in a row and to further move closer to Nijs. He said: "That will be a fabulous reward." Race ReportA slight setback in form, refocused Belgian Sven Nijs, from Baal, on the task of winning. Round 8 of 11 in the 1998-99 Super Prestige Trophy was held on Nijs's favourite course at Diegem. The parcours was extremely heavy after persistent rain earlier in the week. The riders had to contend with deep mud in places although the weather on race day was dry and unseasonably mild.The course had a number of technical obstacles in the form of low-lying wooden barricades, which usually require the rider to port their bike. The technically skilled Nijs has made an art of being able to bunny-hop the barricades and it gives him a tremendous advantage. One of the golden rules of cyclocross racing is to stay on your bike for as long as possible. Sven Nijs, the 22-year old Under-23 World Champion set out from the start to show he is the master of the Super Prestige season. He attacked hard at the outset and jumped the first barricades with contempt for the others who ported. Fellow Belgian Bart Wellens, who is Nijs's arch-rival in the Under-23 division, tried hard to stem the tied but could not stop Nijs's race plan. His own form has been excellent in recent days and he won the last round on Wednesday at Hoogstraten easily. He was very strong there. Both Nijs and Wellens are in their debute season as professionals. But ultimately the dominance and speed of Nijs took its toll on the 20-year old Wellens. Nijs dropped him in the second lap and he was caught by the chasing group comprising veteran Dutchman Adri van der Poel, World Champion Belgian Mario De Clercq, and up-and-coming Belgian Ben Berden. By lap three, Nijs had 20 seconds on this group of four riders. Nijs continued to demonstrate his technical excellence over the barricades and never looked like being threatened. Wellens, after his initial setback regained his strength and started to make some impression on the gap to Nijs. He was so aggressive that Van der Poel and De Clercq were unable to keep his wheel. Berden had been dropped just before the halfway mark. But despite the surge at the halfway mark, Nijs held a 25 second lead over Wellens which remained for the rest of the race. Mario De Clercq had some bad luck at the halfway mark and fought back for 4th place with Van der Poel securing another top 3 finish. Nijs is now an almost certain winner of the overall Super Prestige Trophy for 1998-99. The star of the last few seasons, Dutchman Richard Groenendaal continued his poor form and gave up during the race. Round 8, Diegem1. Sven Nijs (Bel) Rabobank 57.28 2. Bart Wellens (Bel) 0.17 3. Adri van der Poel (Ned) 0.27 4. Mario De Clercq (Bel) 0.32 5. Daniele Pontoni (Ita) 0.32 6. Ben Berden (Bel) 1.00 7. Radomir Simunek (Cze) 1.17 8. Erwin Vervecken (Bel) 1.54 9. Wim De Vos (Ned) 2.16 10. Tom Vanhoppen (Bel) 2.16 11. Marc Janssens (Bel) 2.37 12. Maarten Nijland (Ned) 2.47 13. Gerben De Knegt (Ned) 3.02 14. Peter Van Santvliet (Bel) 3.32 15. Arne Daelmans (Bel) 3.42 Abandoned: Richard Groenendaal (Ned) Rabobank Super Prestige Trophy Standings after Round 8:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total
1. Sven Nijs (Bel) 15 14 15 15 15 10 12 15 111
2. Bart Wellens (Bel) 0 13 12 13 12 13 15 14 92
3. Adri van der Poel (Ned) 12 10 1 11 13 11 11 13 82
4. Mario de Clercq (Bel) 13 15 14 0 10 14 3 12 81
5. Erwin Vervecken (Bel) 11 7 8 4 9 15 14 8 76
6. Richard Groenendaal (Bel 14 12 4 14 3 12 9 0 68
7. Ben Berden (Bel) 5 9 7 8 8 6 6 10 59
8. Radomir Simunek (Cze) 0 5 9 7 11 9 8 9 58
9. Daniele Pontoni (Ita) 8 0 0 5 14 0 13 11 51
10. Marc Janssens (Bel) 9 8 3 12 0 5 4 5 46
11. Peter van Santvliet (Bel 7 11 0 9 0 8 7 2 44
12. Wim de Vos (Ned) 0 0 13 10 0 0 5 7 35
13. Arne Daelmans (Bel) 0 0 5 6 0 7 10 1 29
14. Maarten Nijland (Ned) 3 1 2 2 5 4 0 4 21
15. Peter Willemsens (Bel) 10 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 20
16. Tom Vanhoppen (Bel) 0 3 6 0 0 2 2 6 19
17. Gretinus Gommers (Ned) 0 0 11 1 0 0 0 0 12
18. Gerben De Knegt (Ned) 0 0 0 3 0 3 0 3 9
19. Luca Bramati (Ita) 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 7
20. David Bertoni (Ita) 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 6
21. Danny de Bie (Bel) 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 6
22. Peter van den Abeele (Be 2 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 6
23. Paul Herijgers (Bel) 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6
24. David Willemsens (Bel) 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 5
25. Bjorn Rondelez (Bel) 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 4
26. Kamil Ausbuher (Cze) 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 4
27. Robert Glajza (Svk) 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2
28. Igor Tavella (Ita) 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1
For a listing of the races
|