Belgian National Championships - CNRochefort, Belgium, June 25, 2000
1999 Results Past history Time Trials Elite - 238.7 kmAxel Merckx wins his firstThirty years after his father had won his only Belgian championship, Axel Merckx won his first, and let's hope not his last. His response: "Every year, I've got the chance to win a race 30 years after my father, because he has won so much!" The race was held in Rochefort, on a 21.7 km circuit with two long (for Belgium!) climbs of around 1.5 km with grades of up to 9% (not too difficult though, as most riders took them with the big gear) about halfway round the circuit. The weather conditions were rather bad: it was cloudy the whole day and it rained often. Typically Belgian weather! The first long escape consisted of Gunther Cuylits (Tönissteiner) and Koen De Schuytter (Collstrop). They had a maximum lead of about ten minutes, but were caught by a group of eight, containing Leif Hoste (Mapei), Paul Van Hyfte (Lotto), Christophe Brandt (Saeco) and Peter Farazijn (Cofidis). They almost immediately left the early escapees behind, but only had an advantage of a bit more than 1'30" on the chasing peloton at that point. A hard working Kurt Van Lancker (Lotto) brought the whole peloton within half a minute of the leaders, when Frank Vandenbroucke (Cofidis) made jump and bridged the gap. He immediately continued his effort when he joined the leaders and got his teammate Farazijn with him, but the peloton was on their heels and they were caught again before the end of the lap. A couple of small attacks and pin-pricks followed, but all the favourites stayed together, until Axel Merckx (Mapei) attacked in the penultimate lap and took Vandenbroucke, Museeuw (Mapei), Aerts (Lotto), Wauters (Rabobank) and Erwin Thijs (Vlaanderen 2002), the latter having been at the front for almost all day. Notable absentee was Peter Van Petegem (Farm Frites). Right at the moment that the King of Belgium arrived at the finish to take his place in the tribune of honour, Axel Merckx attacked in the final lap and the others hesitated for a moment. Who wouldn't, with an impressive Museeuw on your wheel? Merckx quickly got half a minute and then a minute, when the leaders, who now had turned into 'chasers' (especially Vandenbroucke who was looking behind to wait for some teammates, but they didn't come), were caught by another chasing group, containing Wilfried Peeters, Tom Steels, Kevin Hulsmans (all Mapei), Rik Verbrugghe, Thierry Marichal (both Lotto), Philippe Vereecke (Ville de Charleroi), Erwin Thijs, Marc Streel (Collstrop) and Peter Van Petegem. This was the moment when the Lotto riders had to chase, but they didn't: instead they stayed at the rear! In the meantime, the bonus of Merckx had grown to 1'15". Finally, at the last climb, about 10 km before the finish, Verbrugghe attacked and Vandenbroucke joined him shortly afterwards, having lost Museeuw, who had reacted, but didn't insist. At the top, Merckx still had 53", but in the finishing kilometers he lost some time and it could have become dangerous, as the last few hundred metres were quite steep. But Merckx didn't crack and finished 31" in front of Vandenbroucke, who sprinted to the second place in front of Verbrugghe. Steels got away of the chasing group in the closing meters and finished 57" behind his teammate Merckx, two seconds later followed by his other teammates Peeters and Museeuw, and the rest of the small bunch. After his stage win in the Giro, this is his second victory this year, and by doing so, has doubled his number of victories in a few weeks time! As you can expect from the second, Vandenbroucke was disillusioned, but certainly granted the victory to Merckx. Report and results courtesy of Joris Verstappen Results1. Axel Merckx (Mapei-Quickstep) 5.50.36 (40.850 km/h) 2. Frank Vandenbroucke (Cofidis) 0.32 3. Rik Verbrugghe (Lotto) 4. Tom Steels (Mapei-Quickstep) 1.00 5. Wilfried Peeters (Mapei-Quickstep) 6. Johan Museeuw (Mapei-Quickstep) 7. Mario Aerts (Lotto) 8. Thierry Marichal (Lotto) 9. Peter Van Petegem (Farm Frites) 10. Hendrik Van Dijck (Palmans-Ideal) 11. Philippe Vereecke (Ville de Charleroi) 12. Erwin Thijs (Vlaanderen 2002) 13. Marc Streel (Collstrop) 14. Marc Wauters (Rabobank) 15. Kevin Hulsmans (Mapei) 1.10 16. Bert Roesems (Tönissteiner-Colnago) 1.42 17. Tom Stremersch (Vlaanderen 2002) 18. Dave Bruylandts (Palmans-Ideal) 19. Kurt Van de Wouwer (Lotto) 20. Hans De Clercq (Palmans-Ideal) 2.00 21. Karel Vereecke (Vlaanderen 2002-Eddy Merckx) 22. Wim Feys (Palmans-Ideal) 23. Eric De Clercq (Collstrop-De Federale Verze) 24. Mario De Clercq (Palmans-Ideal) 25. Nico Eeckhout (Palmans-Ideal) 26. Hans De Meester (Collstrop-De Federale Verzekeringen) 27. Jo Planckaert (Cofidis) 28. Tony Bracke (Collstrop-De Federale Verzekeringen) 29. Tom Desmet (Tönissteiner-Landbouwkrediet) 30. Davy Delmé (Tönissteiner-Landbouwkrediet) 31. Wilfried Cretskens (Vlaanderen 2002-Eddy Merckx) 32. Björn Leukemans (Vlaanderen 2002-Eddy Merckx) 33. Geert Verheyen (Lotto) 34. Steven Kleynen (Farm Frites) 35. Erwin Vervecken (Royal Cyclist's Pésant Club) 36. Andrei Tchmil (Lotto) 37. Ludo Dierckxens (Lampre) 38. Jurgen Guns (Vlaanderen 2002-Eddy Merckx) 39. Davy Daniëls (Vlaanderen 2002-Eddy Merckx) 40. Stive Vermaut (US Postal Service) 41. Peter Farazijn (Cofidis) 2.15 42. Leif Hoste (Mapei-Quick Step) 43. Kurt Van Landeghem (Tönissteiner-Landbouwkrediet) 3.50 44. Geoffrey Gremelpont (Ville de Charleroi) 8.25 45. Sébastien Demarbaix (Lotto) 9.30 46. Manu L'Hoir (Lotto-Adecco) 47. Stijn De Schoenmaecker (Vlaanderen 2002-Eddy Merckx) 48. Jurgen Van de Walle (Palmans-Ideal) 49. Nico Mattan (Cofidis) 50. Jurgen Van Roosbroeck (Vlaanderen 2002-Eddy Merckx) 51. Bert Scheirlinckx (Collstrop-De Federale Verzekeringe) 52. Wesley Theunis (Vlaanderen 2002-Eddy Merckx) 53. Geert Omloop (Collstrop-De Federale Verzekeringen) 54. Geoffrey Demeyere (Vlaanderen 2002-Eddy Merckx) 55. Renaud Boxus (Ville de Charleroi-Newsystems) 56. Karl Pauwels (Palmans-Ideal) 57. Sven Nijs (Rabobank) Finishers: 57 |