Sylvester: Michiels takes the overall victory

Yannick Michiels won his second stage in a row today and secured the overall victory. Kim Geypen also scored her second victory of the event and emerged victorious.

In the usually very fast terrains of Pijnven, today's race was one of the most exciting finals we've had in the Sylvester. With several people who had chances for the podium, a good result today was absolutely necessary.

The terrain, close to the Flanders 3 days 2011 terrains, is as white as white can get. Running straight is the best choice in normal circumstances. Today, the snow introduced some routechoice in the courses, since using the paths could potentially be faster. It also avoids wasting energy.

Several podium contenders had early starting times. Daniel Zwiker, Alexander Lubina, Tomas Hendrickx and Thomas van der Kleij started early on. That did not influence the result as much as during the first days. Later runners had hardly any tracks in the snow. Zwiker missed a control and was disqualified. We don't know what happened exactly, but it left the door open for the others to improve their result. Van der Kleij ran a solid race, losing some time, but not too much and arrived in a strong 51:40. Lubina had more troubles and had to be satisfied with a 54 minute time. Hendrickx ran approximately the same time. For Lubina, this started a nervous wait for the next guys to arrive.
Yannick Michiels, last year's number two Pieter Hendrickx and yours truly started in the middle of the pack. It was Hendrickx who made a big mistake to control 4 and he got caught up by me and together we could not find the control either. We did find the plastic paper with the number, but no control. It wasn't until Wim Bries arrived that he saw the control (which was in the correct position, the pré-balise wasn't). Hendrickx, being Michiels teammate, did not take the lead and so we arrived in a time of 50:00. Michiels couldn't catch us, but was running as strong as yesterday. Another strong performance lead to a top time of 48:40. It was clear that Michiels had won the overall ranking by then.

The last runners to start were Ken Peeters, Desmond Franssen and Joost Talloen. Talloen, having skipped yesterday, had fresh legs and ran a time of 50:30. Peeters was even stronger and finished in 50:10. Both were too far out for the podium. It was only Franssen who could make it, but he didn't. A 52-minute time was not good enough to make it in the top three.

Things weren't clear-cut for Lubina and myself for third position. In the end, after correcting yesterday's timing problems, the difference was just 4 points, with Lubina taking the final place on the podium.

In the women's class, things were also decided today. Iliana Shandurkova and Kim Geypen had to compete for the first position. Geypen was clearly the fastest of the two today. She was one minute faster than today's number 2, Miek Fabré, who competed only the first and the last days. Shandurkova was some 6 minutes behind. This meant Geypen was the one to take the first prize home. Julia Blomquist managed to fend off Katja Stöckli and finished in third position overall.

results
splits
map (Jeroen H)
overall

Sylvester: Day 4

Today in Herentals, Yannick Michiels was outstanding and takes the lead in the overall ranking. He ran incredibly fast and managed a two minute gap to follow-up runner Thomas van der Kleij. Van der Kleij was just 3 seconds faster than Ken Peeters. Yesterday's fast runners Alexander Lubina and Daniel Zwiker could not repeat their strong performance. Neither Lubina nor Zwiker could match the pace of Michiels.

In the overall ranking, it's Michiels who takes the lead. He has a solid advantage to Lubina, van der Kleij, Zwiker or Tomas Hendrickx, the main contenders for the podium. That's a lot of people just a few points apart. It will be exciting to watch the competition unfold tomorrow in Lommel-Pijnven, that's for sure.

In the women's class, Iliana Shandurkova won her second stage in a row. After her impressive gap to Geypen yesterday, the latter was only 2 minutes behind today. Their performance tomorrow will decide who will take the top spot. Julia Blomquist and Katja Stöckli both have chances for third place in the overall ranking.

results
splits
map (Jeroen H)
map (Yannick Michiels)
overall (3/4)
overall (4/4)

Emit Problems

In stage two, it happened to Desmond Franssen. Today it was my turn to finish with an incorrect time. Emit/Helga does not like people writing on De Laatste Post.

Desmond noticed it early on and his result was corrected. I only noticed it while looking at the splits. Too late to correct I think.

This is the problem:
- As runners have start times, the computer time is synchronized to the starting clock.
- Runners activate their emit at the start and run their course.
- The emit timer stops as soon as the runner tries to upload his course data to the computer
- If everything is working fine, the data is transmitted and recalculated to the start time
- If the computer is not accepting this data however, perhaps because of some data entry, the timer is also stopped.
- Now when, some time later, you try to upload your data a second time, something is not smart enough to realize that the internal timer was stopped earlier and the time lost is added to the time to the first control.

The man at the computer (Karl Vervoort), was entering data while I first tried to connect and I had to retry some time later. I compared splits to Yannick and I knew I was running fast to the first control, but even then, he had a huge gap. This was strange, but whatever. Now looking at the splits, it's obvious that I experienced the same problems as Desmond in Balen. I caught up with Pieter Hendrickx at control 13 and took the lead. As Hendrickx is a teammate of Michiels, he never took the lead and did not punch any control in front of me. Yet, the splits show him 15 seconds ahead all the time.

This is not the first time something like this happened. We complained about it many years ago. I always use the emit time when organizing an event with start times and correct afterwards with data from the team at the start. It's a shame that such things still happen on events like this and I don't want to know how many people had an incorrect time the last years.

Sylvester day 3 Grote Heide zuid: map and results

Who will win the next edition from the sylvester 5-days in Belgium and will be remembered as the successor from Jörgen Wickholm? Today the 3rd stage took place in the Netherlands, close to Eindhoven. Also this time the snow was present and specially in the open area it affected the runability seriously. Good starttimes are they key to success during this competition (and since the starttimes aren't grouped for each hour, it isn't very fair).

In men elite class Thomas van der Kleij (one of the favourits for the overall victory) had an early starttime and had to fight through the snow. Despite this disadvantage he ran a strong race and finished in 51'. But Gert Claes (who surprised everybody yesterday with a solid race) started 2 minutes behind van der Kleij and succeeded to catch up with him right before the last technical area (at control 18). Surprisingly van der Kleij didn't want to take the lead and decided that the orienteering was up to Claes. This story reminds us to the conflict between Andersson and Gueorgiou. But this time nobody punched the wrong control and Claes finished in 49'.

Pieter Hendrickx (who became 2nd at the 5days in 2009) is still suffering from his knee injury and didn't succeed to fight for the victory the previous days. Also today he didn't take risks and didn't run full speed.

Jeroen Hoekx was the next runner who ran strong today. He succeeded in beating the best time and finished in 48'. Yannick Michiels, Desmond Franssen and Jan Oeyen started behind him but none of them ran a faster race. Only Tomas Hendrickx (who already won the 2nd stage) ran 20 seconds faster than Hoekx.

Among the late starters there were still some good runners who are able to beat the current winning time. One of them is the Swiss runner Daniel Zwiker (who won the 1st stage). He ran 47' today and became 2nd. Alex Lubina has the speed and succeeded to avoid mistake, so he won the race with a clear lead (45'). He also takes the 1st position in the total ranking.

In women elite class Kim Geypen ran again a decent race and probably she's on her way to win the 5days. But Iliana Shandurkova took the day victory. She didn't run the first stage, but she's still able to fight for the overall victory. Julia Blomqvist (fighting for the poduim) got disqualified and didn't finish today.

Results
Splits
Map (Jeroen Hoekx)
Map (Desmond Franssen)

Sylvester: Day 1 and 2

The last days of the year are always some of the nicest. 5 days in a row of orienteering and a nice chat with the other competitors after the race. This year's Sylvester five-days is different, though. While the forest is usually pretty white in the orienteering meaning of the word, these days it's white in the literal meaning with Belgium experiencing the largest amount of snow in 30 years. Yesterday's WRE was canceled due to the snow, but the overall ranking of the event will be calculated, even though the first starters are at a disadvantage to the later one. There is still a lot of joy to be had in the forests and open areas.

The first day, a middle distance planned as a WRE, was run in the forests of Houterenberg. The Belgian champs long distance were run there a few years ago, but the terrain is perhaps better suited for this kind of race.

In the women's class, it was once again Miek Fabré who was on top of the results list. She had a 40 second gap to Kim Geypen and some two minutes to Aline Hermans. Fabré and Hermans are only participating in this first event, so this was a good start for Geypen in the overall ranking.

Swiss runner Daniel Zwiker impressed in the H21 category, beating the number two, Yannick Michiels by more than one minute. Michiels, still a junior, was just 15 seconds faster than Thomas van der Kleij. The german arrow, Alexander Lubina had to settle for fourth place, only two seconds behind. Belorussian Sergey Fedatsenka was also close to van der Kleij, at 4 seconds.

results
splits
map (Yannick Michiels)

Day two was run in the typical sand dune terrains of Keiheuvel. Recent deforestation transformed some previously green areas into large open spaces in the surrounding white forests.

As neither Fabré not Hermans competed today, the road for Geypen's first victory of these five days was wide open. The Bulgarian Iliana Shandurkova made her first appearance in the Belgian forests today. Would she manage to surprise? She ended up in second position, two minutes down on Geypen, but comfortably in front of number three Julia Blomquist.

In the men's class, results were close together, starting from place two. Once again someone managed to win by a large margin to the runner up. This time it was Tomas Hendrickx, starting rather early on even. He is moving into a good position in the overall ranking, since he wasn't that far behind on Sunday. Second place Desmond Franssen is running comfortably in the upper ranks of the results list these days. He had a 40 second gap to the number three, local Gert Claes.

Yesterday's winner Zwiker had quite an off-day today, finishing in 15th position, more than 10 minutes behind the leader. This means it's most likely Franssen is in the lead by now, having a narrow margin to van der Kleij and Hendrickx. Since only four days out of five count towards the final ranking, nothing has been decided yet and De Laatste Post will keep you posted on the exciting days ahead.

results
splits
map (Yannick Michiels)

Slaat Peeters de dubbelslag?

Ken Peeters maakte een einde aan de zegereeks van Thomas van der Kleij in het nachtcriterium. Die zegereeks begon de vorige individuele nachtwedstrijd op Meetshoven en leek nog lang niet te eindigen. Toch gebeurde het onwaarschijnlijke vrijdag al.

Het eerste wedstrijduur was het uur van de toeristen. Dries van der Kleij dook als eerste het donkere bos in, gevolgd door Nachtraaf Winston Franssen, Wannes Hendrickx, Yannick Michiels, uw dienaar, Desmond Franssen en tenslotte Benjamin Anciaux. In normale wedstrijdomstandigheden een treintje om u tegen te zeggen, maar net als bij de NMBS eiste het winterweer zijn tol. W. Franssen begon met missers aan de eerste twee posten, werd ingehaald door Hendrickx, voorbijgestoken door Hendrickx en ging er dan tenslotte toch zelf vandoor. Zo kwam het dat Hendrickx werd ingehaald door Michiels en samen deden ze de originele wegkeuze naar de laatste post. Zo kunnen wij het ook: eerst naar de finish en dan de lintjes volgen.

Verderop was het uw dienaar die kalmpjes vertrok. Heeft enkel ambitie in het Wintercriterium en niet in het Nachtcriterium. Dat nachtcriterium zit er trouwens op voor ons. Onze nachtlamp vergeten in de kleedkamer vrijdagavond en de baanlegger vond ze niet meer bij de verloren voorwerpen! D. Franssen deed het niet zo kalm aan, vertrok in vliegende vaart, stoof uw dienaar al na 6 posten voorbij en van dan af aan ging het mis. Deed slechte wegkeuzes en rende dan nog eens een foute pad in. Dat was het einde van de ambities voor die dag.

Eenzelfde verhaal bij Anciaux. Daags tevoren nog sleurend aan de kop van de DALO training naar Luyksgestel en terug, wegens ijs op de normale omloop. "Vandaag nog eens goed doorgaan, dan kan ik morgen vliegen en van der Kleij nachtcriteriumpunten afsnoepen", konden wij, bengelend achteraan en aan het einde van ons Latijn, nog net opvangen. Toch bleef het bij ijdele woorden, want ook Anciaux verkeek zich op het terrein en moest uiteindelijk nog genoegen nemen met een 11de plaats, wat D. Franssen, die wat hoger in de uitslag aan het zoeken was, deed vragen wanneer Anciaux nu eens ging uitlezen.

De echte toppers startten het laatste wedstrijduur. Eerst ging Jan Oeyen, nachtuil bij uitstek, het bos in en verscherpte de winnende tijd tot dan toe, van Michiels, met drie minuten.

Maar daar hield het niet op, want Peeters en T. van der Kleij moesten nog vertrekken. In Meetshoven was het nog van der Kleij die met de bloemen naar huis mocht, maar dat was vrijdagavond niet waar. Een fout naar post 6 besliste de wedstrijd. Peeters was ook al overtuigend naar 't schijnt tijdens de nachtwedstrijd in Turnhout afgelopen woensdag.

Daarom tippen wij ook op hem voor de Trolwedstrijd van morgen, zondag, in Poppel. Wintercriteriumpunten staan er voorlopig nog niet achter zijn naam, maar wij zullen morgen onze race toch op hem afstemmen. In volle Sylvestervoorbereiding zou zo'n dubbelslag een veelbetekenende dreun voor de concurrentie zijn. Onze bronnen wisten ons ook te vertellen dat van der Kleij er allerminst mee kon lachen en ondertussen al onderweg is naar Gran Canaria voor een weekje training in optimale omstandigheden. De privéjet om op tijd terug te zijn voor de volgende nachtcriteriumwedstrijd in het Prinsenpark volgende week vrijdag, is al ingehuurd.

Van der Kleij en Peeters toen de rivaliteit nog niet zo groot was

Bij de dames een soortgelijk verhaal. Miek Fabré startte vroeg op omloop 1 en toen wij op het punt stonden om naar huis te gaan, kwam ze terug van de kleedkamer, wierp een blik op de uitslag en kon lachend zeggen: "ik heb gewonnen", riep ze de kleine broer tot de orde die haar eerst nog onder water gooide door tegen Fabrés drinkbus aan te lopen en vertrok tenslotte in volle overwinningsroes vlot door de bocht scheurend naar huis. Wij stonden erbij en keken ernaar. Wat Fabré niet wist was dat Greet Oeyen op dat moment door het bos scheurde als een sneltrein en zo slaagde waar van der Kleij niet in slaagde: aan 100% scoren in het nachtcriterium.

Uitslag
Tussentijden
Kaart (Yannick)

Hoekx herhaalt zijn kunstje van 2007, 2006 en 2005 niet

KOL-atleet Pieter Hendrickx heeft de prestigeuze Sinterklaascross te Kamp van Beverlo gewonnen.
Jeroen Hoekx startte na zeges in 2007, 2006 en 2005 (in omloop 2) als favoriet. Hoekx had een baaldag en strandde uiteindelijk op de 5e plaats.

Pieter Hendrickx liet er geen gras over groeien en zette tot controlepost 6 de rest meteen onder druk. Vervolgens, tot post 21, konden Franssen D. en Oeyen J. wat seconden terugnemen op Hendrickx. Maar dankzij een sterk slot won Hendrickx overtuigend. Meteen zen eerste WC-punten waardoor hij oprukt naar een gedeelde 15e stek in het klassement.
Franssen D. kon pas in de slotfase de strijd om de 2e plaats in zijn voordeel doen uitdraaien. Man in vorm, Jan Oeyen, moest het na een overtuigende overwinning eerder deze week ditmaal tevreden zijn met het laagst beschikbare schavotje van het podium.

In het WC-klassement verstevigt Hoekx zijn leiderspositie. Door de afwezigheid van Kristof Daems sprong Wim Bries naar de 2e plaats van het 3 seizoenen durende winterklassement.

Hoekx: "Blij dat ik niet te veel punten verloren heb"
Hoekx had deze winter de cross in Lietteberg al naar zijn hand gezet. Hoekx: "Dit is een mooie cross. Ik ben blijven lopen om 5e te worden en dat is me gelukt. Ik ben niet echt tevreden over mijn cross, maar ik ben wel blij dat ik niet te veel WC-punten verloren heb."

Franssen D.: "Enkel fysiek liep het volgens plan"
Na een 3e plaats te Witte bergen en 2e te Tielenkamp kon D. Franssen zijn progressie niet voortzetten. "Ondanks men nieuwe wagen startte ik niet gefocust en verloor meteen tijd naar controlepunt 1. Zonde, fysiek ging het ondanks een korte nachtrust goed. Men wegkeuzes waren niet de beste die zich opdrongen op dit Kamp van Beverlo-plan."

Ook bij de dames was een sterk deelnemersveld aanwezig. Na een sterke start werd Greet Oeyen tweede achter Miek Fabré. Naast hen vervolledigde Igna Heyns een mooi podium.

RESULTATEN & SPLITS