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61st Nokere Koerse - 1.1
Belgium, March 15, 2006
2005 Results Results Past winners
Roesems knows how to win Nokere
By Brecht Decaluwé in Nokere
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The 61st Nokere Koerse has been won by the 32 year-old Bert Roesems. The time-trialling specialist grabbed the win in his own style. "I'm not a sprinter, so if I want to win, I need to finish alone," he said. "This is my 25th victory in my career. Not bad for a non-sprinter! I win races coming in alone, or in a time-trial. Last year, I was also in the front group, but the race resulted in a sprint. That ended in a 10th place. This year had to be different, so I choose a different tactic. I attacked on a small climb. From there on, the road goes down to the ultimate climb at the finish. I never looked back and gave everything I had, as in a time trial.
Finishing alone with all these people shouting your name gives you a real kick. Winning a time trial is also fun, but there you have to wait for the other results. My next objectives are De Panne and Paris-Roubaix."
Wouter Weylandt (Quick.Step) won the sprint for second place but he was cursing everybody when he came over the finish line. "Did you see how big my advantage was at the line?" he asked. "When Roesems attacked, it was up to the guys from Unibet to chase the guy. I don't understand why they didn't do it. I hoped to show the people of our Quick.Step team what I'm worth. Probably, I proved something, but winning should've been better. Maybe, with this performance I can get into the selection for Waregem and De Panne."
German Markus Eichler (Regiostrom-Senges) came in fourth, behind Jeremy Hunt, proving his good form again."This is the fourth UCI race where I can finish in the top 10," he said. "I won the Prix de Lillers last week and Sunday I came third in the Omloop van het Waasland-Kemzeke. It's a surprise to me that my form is this good. But, I think that my form can improve even more. Last year was ok, but the year before I couldn't race. I had to do my military duties and had a broken leg. So, I'm still young and fresh. Hopefully I can get into a Pro-Continental team so I can compete in some more quality races."
How it unfolded
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Nokere Koerse is the first, but relatively unknown race in the series of spring classics. From now on, every weekend and Wednesday, there are classics being held in Flanders. The race started after a minute of silence for Arno Wallaard, the young rider from Skil-Shimano, who passed away recently. In Oudenaarde, 174 riders got away with the sun shining like never before this year. Davitamon-Lotto couldn't manage to form a complete team as Tom Steels had some fever and Nick Gates was injured. Frank Vandenbroucke, still a favourite of the Belgian audience, started in Belgium for the first time this year.
In these perfect racing conditions, a group of 17 riders rode in front for 35 kilometres. Everything was brought back together and then it was time for Tyler Farrar (Cofidis) to give it a try. He had a maximum advantage of two minutes going into the local laps. But, he was eventually joined by Hilton Clarke (Navigators) and Niki Terpstra (Ubbink). They couldn't stay away as the peloton kept a fast pace. With five laps to go, a group of 11 riders got away. Kevin De Weert (Quickstep), Gorik Gardeyn (Unibet) and leader in the Continental rankings Frederik Willems (Chocolade Jacques) were part of this group.
There was a big fall in the peloton with Niels Scheunemann requiring medical treatment in hospital with wrist pain. Meanwhile, the gap to the leaders was only one minute. 33 riders managed to bridge the gap, and in that group, most teams were represented. The Bouygues Telecom team looked to be the strongest team with six men in front, but the advantage of the 44 riders never grew to more than a minute. With three laps to go, Aart Vierhouten tried his luck with an attack. A number of attacks followed and this allowed fourteen 14 to get away. They existed of Roesems, Weylandt, Claude, Le Boulanger and Ravard, Willems again, Boucher, Pronk and Ljungblad, Steurs, Rooijakkers, Beima and Markus Eichler. The peloton caught the 30 other riders but they never saw the leaders again. Only three men managed to come back to the front, with Jeremy Hunt (Unibet) being one of them. This gave Unibet an ideal position, having four men in the front group.
In the last lap, Anthony Ravard tried his luck with an attack. But, he could only get an advantage of about 50 metres. Roesems attacked behind him on a steep part of the road and got away. The 32 year old time-trial specialist worked one kilometre for a gap of only 50 metres, but then the pursuers stopped the chase. The tall rider of Davitamon-Lotto finished with an advantage of 0'27 on Wouter Weylandt. The young Belgian won the sprint in impressive style before Jeremy Hunt of Unibet. Markus Eichler, from the small Regiostrom team, kept building on his good form and came in as fourth.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Luc Claessen/www.ctm-images.com
- The early break
- Aart Vierhouten (Skil-Shimano)
- One of the Bouygues Telecom riders leads the break
- The race leaders - not looking too well organised.
- Bert Roesems (Davitamon-Lotto) solos away from the pack.
- Bert Roesems (Davitamon-Lotto) claims the win
- Bert Roesems (Davitamon-Lotto)
- Bert Roesems (Davitamon-Lotto) enjoying his moment on the podium
Images by Brecht Decaluwé/Cyclingnews
- Frank Vandenbroucke (Unibet.com) raced in Belgium for the first time this year
- Dimitri De Fauw enjoying the good weather
- Francesco Chicchi (Quick.Step) also enjoying the sunny weather.
- Theo Eltink (Rabobank)
- Kevin Hulsmans (Quick.Step) tries to jump across to the leaders
- The sprint for second place is won by Weylandt ahead of Hunt and Eichler
- Wouter Weylandt (Quickstep-Innergetic) looks happier than Roesems on the podium, Jeremy Hunt couldn't reach it
Results - 193.2 km
1 Bert Roesems (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto 2 Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quickstep-Innergetic 0.27 3 Jeremy Hunt (GBr) Unibet.com 4 Markus Eichler (Ger) Team Regiostrom-Senges 5 Wouter Mol (Ned) Fondas - P3 Transfer 6 David Boucher (Fra) Unibet.com 7 Frederik Willems (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen 8 Geert Steurs (Bel) Pictoflex Bikeland Hyundai 9 Mathieu Claude (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 10 Anthony Ravard (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 11 René Weissinger (Ger) Skil-Shimano 12 Yoann Le Boulanger (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 13 Piet Rooijakkers (Ned) Skil-Shimano 14 Marcel Beima (Ned) ProComm-Van Hemert 15 Matthé Pronk (Ned) Unibet.com 0.40 16 Jonas Ljungblad (Swe) Unibet.com 0.44 17 Marvin Van Der Pluijm (Ned) Ubbink-Syntec Cycling Team 1.28 18 Kevin Hulsmans (Bel) Quickstep-Innergetic 19 Johan Coenen (Bel) Unibet.com 20 Ward Bogaerts (Bel) Yawadoo - Colba - Abm 21 Aart Vierhouten (Ned) Skil-Shimano 22 Valery Kobzarenko (Ukr) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 1.38 23 Kenny Robert Van Hummel (Ned) Skil-Shimano 24 Denis Flahaut (Fra) Flanders 25 Takehiro Zizutani (Jpn) Cycle Racing Team Vang 26 Igor Abakoumov (Bel) Jartazi-7Mobile 27 Tim Meeusen (Bel) Pictoflex Bikeland Hyundai 28 Arnaud Labbe (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 29 Oleg Grishkine (Rus) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 30 Andrey Mizourov (Kaz) Cycling Team Capec 31 Alain Van Katwijk (Ned) ProComm-Van Hemert 32 Steven Caethoven (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen 33 James Vanlandschoot (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 34 Rik Reinerink (Ned) Skil-Shimano 35 Gregory De Munster (Bel) Flanders 36 Steven Thys (Bel) Jartazi-7Mobile 37 Russel Downing (GBr) DFL-Cyclingnews 38 Maarten Tjalingii (Ned) Skil-Shimano 39 Steffen Weigold (Ger) Team Lamonta 40 Jérôme Vincent (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 41 Francesco Chicchi (Ita) Quickstep-Innergetic 42 Ronny Poelvoorde (Bel) Flanders 43 Benjamin Brooks (Aus) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 44 Christopher Sutton (Aus) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone 45 Andy Cappelle (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 46 Bart De Spiegelaere (Bel) Flanders 47 Norbert Poels (Ned) Fondas-P3Transfer Team 48 Geert Verheyen (Bel) Quickstep-Innergetic 49 Ilya Chernyshov (Kaz) Cycling Team Capec 50 Cameron Jennings (Aus) DFL-Cyclingnews 51 Alexey Zaitsev (Kaz) Cycling Team Capec 52 Sébastien Rosseler (Bel) Quickstep-Innergetic 53 Thomas Berkhout (Ned) Van Vliet - EBH Advocaten 54 Yanto Barker (GBr) DFL-Cyclingnews 55 Theo Eltink (Ned) Rabobank 56 Junya Sano (Jpn) Cycle Racing Team Vang 57 Kenny Lisabeth (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen 58 Jens Mouris (Ned) Team Regiostrom-Senges 59 Kevin De Weert (Bel) Quickstep-Innergetic 60 Bernard Sulzberger (Aus) DFL-Cyclingnews 61 Frederik Veuchelen (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen 62 Christoph Von Kleinsorgen (Ger) Team Lamonta 63 Peter Ronsse (Bel) Jartazi-7Mobile 64 Floris Goesinnen (Ned) Van Vliet-EBH Advocaten 65 Maint Berkenbosch (Ned) Team Regiostrom-Senges 66 Leonardo Duque (Col) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone 67 Giovanni Bernaudeau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 68 Leonardo Scarselli (Ita) Quickstep-Innergetic 69 Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 70 Maarten Mandemakers (Ned) Fondas-P3Transfer Team 71 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Cycle Racing Team Vang 72 Koji Fukushima (Jpn) Cycle Racing Team Vang 73 Michael Blanchy (Bel) Jartazi-7Mobile 74 Paul Martens (Ger) Skil-Shimano 75 Dean Downing (GBr) DFL-Cyclingnews 76 Christoph Meschenmoser (Ger) Skil-Shimano 77 ? 78 Nico Eeckhout (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen 79 Jens Renders (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen 80 Jurgen Vandewalle (Bel) Quick.Step 81 Steven Kleynen (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 82 Jos Pronk (Ned) ProComm-Van Hemert 83 Arne Hassink (Ned) Fondas-P3Transfer Team 84 Bjorn Coomans (Bel) Pictoflex Bikeland Hyundai 85 Johnny Hoogerland (Ned) Jartazi-7Mobile 86 Frederik Christiaens (Bel) 87 Sébastien Minard (Fra) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone 88 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank 89 Bert De Waele (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 90 Frank Vandenbroucke (Bel) Unibet.com 91 Dennis Smit (Ned) Ubbink-Syntec Cycling Team 92 Reinier Honig (Ned) Fondas-P3Transfer Team 93 Filip Meirhaeghe (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 94 Gert Vanderaerden (Bel) Yawadoo-Colba-ABM 95 Olivier Kaisen (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto 2.57 96 Egon Van Kessel (Ned) Van Vliet-EBH Advocaten 3.07 97 Dirk Bellemakers (Ned) Van Vliet-EBH Advocaten 3.37 Starters: 188 Classified: 97
Past winners
1st 2nd 3rd 2005 Steven De Jongh (Ned) Igor Abakoumov (Bel) Geert Omloop (Bel) 2004 Max Van Heeswijk (Ned) Rudi Kemna (Ned) Jo Planckaert (Bel) 2003 Matthé Pronk (Ned) Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Hendrik Van Dijck (Bel) 2002 Aurélien Clerc (Swi) Jans Koerts (Ned) Steven De Jongh (Ned) 2001 Michel Van Haecke Bart Voskamp (Ned) Nico Eeckhout (Bel) 2000 Hendrik Van Dyck Nico Mattan Jan Koerts (Ned) 1999 Jeroen Blijlevens Michel Van Haecke Wielfried Cretskens 1998 Scott Sunderland (Aus) Leon Van Bon (Ned) Chris Peers 1997 Hendrik Van Dyck Wim Feys Bart Voskamp (Ned) 1996 Hendrik Van Dyck Jelle Nydam (Ned) Michel Cornelisse (Ned) 1995 Jo Planckaert Michel Vermote Geert Van Bondt 1994 Peter De Clercq Michel Cornelisse Chris Peers 1993 Michel Cornelisse (Ned) Jan Bogaert Mario De Clercq 1992 Johan Capiot Peter De Clercq Benjamin Van Itterbeeck 1991 Koen Van Rooy Johan Capiot Martin Koekelhoren (Ned) 1990 Herman Frison Roger Vandenbossche Filip Van Vooren 1989 Rik Van Slycke André Mierzejewski Peter Spanhoven 1988 Patrick Versluys Yves Godimus Danny Janssens 1987 Etienne De Wilde Francky Van Oyen Ludo Giesberts 1986 Luc Colyn Jan Van Camp Rony Van Holen 1985 Didier Foubert Patrick Versluys Jan Bogaert 1984 Jan Bogaert Patrick Versluys Eric Stevens 1983 Walter Schoonjans Patrick Cocquyt Gerald Veldschoten (Ned) 1982 William Tackaert Ludo De Keulenaer Rudi Matthys 1981 Gerrit Knetemann (Ned) Herman Van Springel Claude Criquelion 1980 Jos Van De Poel Johan Vandevelde (Ned) Paul Jesson (NZl) 1979 Hendrik De Vos William Tackaert Tony Houbrechts 1978 Gustaaf Van Roosbroeck Jan Aling (Ned) Jos Jacobs 1977 Frans Van Looy Gerrit Knetemann (Ned) Roberto Cerieto (Ita) 1976 Luc Leman Lucien De Brauwere Geert Malfait 1975 Marc De Meyer Willy Teirlinck Jan Raas (Ned) 1974 Freddy Maertens Pierrino Gavazzi (Ita) Ronald De Witte 1973 Noël Van Tieghem Claude Magni (Ita Gerard Vianen (Ned) 1972 Tony Houbrechts Rony Van Marcke Willy Planckaert 1971 Herman Van Springel Eric Leman Maurice Eyers 1970 Andre Dierick Patrick Sercu Bernard Van De Kerkhove 1969 Roger Rosiers Frans Mintjes Michel Jacquemin 1968 Frans Brands Roger Cooreman Michel Jacquemin 1967 Walter Godefroot Jacques De Boever Roger Blockx 1966 Jacques De Boever Oswald De Clercq Reindert De Jongh (Ned) 1965 Arthuur De Cabooter Jos Mathy Gustaaf De Smet 1964 Robert De Middeleir Leon Van Daele André Noyelle 1963 Frans De Mulder Daniël Doom Norbert Kerckbove 1961 Leon Van Daele Jozef Vloeberghs Gilbert Maes 1960 Gilbert De Smet Louis Troonbeeckx Pol Rosseel 1959 No race 1958 Arthuur De Cabooter Gilbert Desmet Julien Schepens 1957 André Aucquier Pino Cerami Francis Kemplaire 1956 Marcel Ryckaert Roger Declerck Lucien Mathijs 1955 Jozef Schils Briek Schotte Henri Denijs 1954 Jan Zagers Roger Decock Roger Desmet 1953 Baziel Wambeke Rik Jochums Julien Pascal 1952 Wim Van Est André Pieters Rafaël Jonckheere 1951 Gerard Buyl Maurice Blomme Valeer
