ParisBruxelles, Cat 1.1

Belgium, September 13, 1997

1996 Results

Teams and Participants

MAPEI-GB
1. Johan Museeuw, 2. Tom Steels, 3. Andrea Tafi, 4. Frank Vandenbroucke, 5. Carlo Bomans, 6. Gianluca Pianegonda, 7. Oskar Camenzind, 8. Bart Leysen, 9. Nico Mattan, 10. Wilfried Peeters.

MG-TECHNOGYM
11. Michele Bartoli, 12. Fabio Baldato, 13. Alessandro Bertolini, 14. Paolo Betini, 15. Carlo Finco, 16. Fabiano Fontanelli, 17. Stefano Casagranda, 18. Luca Scinto, 20. Matteo Tosatto.

FESTINA-LOTUS
21. Gianluca Bortolami, 22. Bruno Boscardin, 23. Lozio Bodrogi, 24. Gilles Bouvard, 25. André Korff, 26. Emmanuel Magnien, 27. Thierry Leurent, 28. Valerio Tebaldi.

CEDICO-VILLE DE CHARLEROI
31. Marc Bouillon, 32. Jean-Pierre Heynderickx, 33. Michaël Giebelmann, 34. André Kalfack, 35. Frédéric Lagneau, 36. Oleg Kozlitine, 37. Thierry Marichal, 38. Jean-Luc Masdupuy, 39. Michel Nottebart, 40. Frank Van den Abbeele.

LA FRANCAISE DES JEUX
41. Davide Rebellin 42. Maximillian Sciandri, 43. Mauro Gianetti, 44. Stéphane Heulot, 45. Frédéric Guesdon, 46. Flavio Vanzella, 47. Andrea Peron, 48. Eddy Seigneur.

RABOBANK
51. Michaël Boogerd, 52. Adrie Van der Poel, 53. Erik Breukink, 54. Erik Dekker, 55. Richard Groenendaal, 56. Johan Bruyneel, 57. Bert Hiemstra, 58. Marc Lotz, 59. Robbie McEwen, 60. Arvis Piziks.

LOTTO
61. Andrei Tchmil, 62. Jo Planckaert, 63. Peter Farazijn, 64. Christophe Detilloux, 65. Wim Feys, 66. Fabian Dewaele, 67. Chris Peers, 68. Paul Van Hyfte, 69. Marc Wauters, 70. Ludwig Willems.

FORELDORADO-GOLFF
71. John Talen, 72. Eddy Bouwmans, 73. Michael Cerneus, 74. Godert De Leeuw, 75. Lucien De Louw, 76. John Van den Akker, 77. Michael Van der Wolf, 78. Wim Van de Meulenhof, 79. Raymond Meijs, 80. Jan Hordijk.

TEAM POLTI
81. Luc Leblanc, 82. Serguei Outschakov, 83. Mirko Celestino, 84. Cristiano Colleoni, 85. Rossano Brasi, 86. Ivan Quaranta, 87. Fabio Sacchi, 88. Axel Merckx, 89. Enrico Cassani.

VLAANDEREN 2002-E. MERCKX
91. Luc Roosen 92. Kris Gerits, 93. Stive Vermaut, 94. Erwin Thijs, 95. Geert Van Bondt, 96. Kurt Van de Wouwer, 97. Kurt Van Lancker, 98. Bert Roesems, 99. Wim Vansevenant, 100. Johan Verstrepen.

TEAM NURNBERGER
101. Ralf Werner, 102. Jens Zemke, 103. Patrick Köhler, 104. Dirk Ronnelenfitsch, 106. Marko Schlittchen, 107. Roman Stoffel, 108. Christian Van Dartel, 109. Martin Van Steen, 110. Mike Weissmann.

TONISSTEINER-SAXON

111. Stéphane Hennebert, 112. Franky De Buyst, 113. Masahiko Mifune, 114. Ludo Dierckxens, 115. Gert Willockx, 117. Eddy Torrekens, 119. Soren Petersen, 120. Paul Herijgers.

RDM-ASFRA-SITRA
121. Oleg Pankov, 122. Matthew Allan, 123. Ronny Assez, 126. Christophe Leeuwerck, 127. Jakob Piil Storm, 128. Christian Selim, 129. Rik Van Slycke, 130. Vadim Volar.

IPSO
131. Koen Beeckman, 132. Hans Redant, 133. Stig Kristiansen, 134. Andy De Smet, 136. Harry Lodge, 137. Jan Poppe, 139. Michel Van Haecke 140. Robbie Vandaele.

PALMANS
141. Wilfried Nelissen, 142. Gert Vanderaerden, 143. Peter Spaenhoeven, 144. Hans De Clercq, 145. Mario De Clercq, 146. Johan De Geyter, 147. Hans De Meester, 148. Danny Daelman, 149. Chris Heyndryckx, 150. Gino Verheyden.

COLLSTROP-LYSTEX
151. Eric De Clercq, 152. Peter Verbeken, 153. Danny Baeyens, 154. Steven De Neef, 155. Tom Desmet, 156. Frank Hoj, 157. Tim Lenaers, 158. Gunter Stockx, 159. Geert Verdeyen, 160. Jurgen Vermeersch.

BIG MAT-AUBER 93

TVM

ROSLOTTO-ZG MOBILI
181. Andrea Ferrigato, 182. Marco Fincato, 183. Alexandre Gontchenkov, 184. Stefano Cattai, 185. Vitali Kokorine, 186. Daniele Sgnaolin, 188. Marco Zen.

Recent Winners

1987  Wim Arras (Bel)
1988  Rolf Goelz (Ger) 
1989  Jelle Nijdam (Ned) 
1990  Franco Ballerini (Ita)
1991  Brian Holm (Den)
1992  Rolf Soerensen (Den) 
1993  Francis Moreau (Fra)
1994  Rolf Sorensen (Den)
1995  Frank Vandenbroucke (Bel) 
1996  Andrea Tafi (Ita)
1997  Alessandro Bertolini (Ita)

Progress and Report

With 45 km still to go Scinto (after a solo of 170 km) was caught by a group of 18.

With one 8 km lap to go 6 riders were in front: Museeuw, Planckaert, Sciandri, Gontchenkov, Bouvard and Celestino.

With 3 km to go there were still 4 riders: Museeuw, Planckaert, Sciandri and Gontchenkov; but in the last km a little peloton came back to them.

Italy's Alessandro Bertolini finally won the 256-km Paris-Brussels classic on Saturday, breaking free from the pack in the final kilometre to claim a surprise victory.

Bertolini, riding for the MG team, finished ahead of the Ukraine's Andrei Tchmil and last year's winner Italian Andrea Tafi.

As the race entered the Belgian capital, Axel Merckx, son of Eddie Merckx, headed the field.

Then a group of riders, including world champion Johan Museeuw of Belgium, fellow countryman Jo Planckaert, Briton Maximilian Sciandri and Russian Alexandre Gontchenkov took up the lead.

But it was the slightly-built Bertolini who came through strongly, winning in six hours 18 minutes.

Race distance - 255.7 km: