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
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
posted by JeroenH @ 17:20
12 Comments:
At 30/12/10 20:56,
Anoniem said…
"...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."
Utter rubish on an otherwise nice comment.
At 30/12/10 21:16,
JeroenH said…
I started at 11h03 and had no tracks to 1, some tracks to 2, no tracks to 3,4, some tracks to 5, no tracks to 6, good tracks to 7, no tracks to 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, some to 15, none to 16 until I arrived where everyone ran, none to 17, 18, good, but wrong ones to 19.
I stand by my statement. Compared to days 1-2-3, there were hardly any.
At 30/12/10 21:21,
Anoniem said…
I started even earlier and I had tracks to 1, 2, partially 3, 4, 5 etc etc. I had to look carefully on every occasion due to the early start but it for sure helped as on every other day. Got the wrong ones to 19 too though.
At 30/12/10 21:53,
Anoniem said…
On control 4, there were two pre-balises, one on the correct spot and one on a wrong one. It was getting dark when I put them out and I was aware that the first pre-balise I put out was too far from the green area, so I started taking steps from the shooting platform and put one at the right place. Unfortunately, it was getting too dark to retrieve the second one. When I put out the controls yesterday, I was sure about the location of the good pre-balise and I usually these away when the control is put. I totally forgot about the other pre-balise. Sorry for that.
When I was out in the field, I have seen quite some tracks in the snow, although not as obvious as the previous days. I had the impression they became less apparent later in the day due to the melting of the snow. Virtually everybody (except for course 8) passed through the section to control 19 and I have seen a lot of people ending up way too far to the west.
Frederik Loeckx
At 31/12/10 10:34,
Roel said…
Having a late starting time both in Houterenberg (day 1) and Pijnven, I can easily compare both days 1 and 5.
There was a day-and-night difference in both days. In Houterenberg, you were restricted to following the 'highway' if you wanted to play safe (one stubborn new route choice cost me more than one minute), while I did not follow any tracks in Pijnven, and hardly saw any clear trails that provided significant running advantage.
So I certainly agree with Jeroen's statement.
But the issue of starting order will always be a topic for discussion. Did some training in the Sahara (Lommel) about six weeks ago on the map of the BK middle distance 2010, and even several weeks after the event, you could still easily see the tracks of the event in the grass...
Having a late starting time will always be an advantage, I guess.
At 31/12/10 12:07,
dries said…
Comment of Roel is very relevant. I ran 2 times on the first day, as one of the first, struggling in the snow and later on together with my girlfriend jogging on the tracks - What a difference.
On the 3th day I was about the very first to run in the open area, this was really hard. As a late starter you can feel the difference between the track in the snow and running aside the track for a while.
I have the feeling that the disadvantage is decreasing in an exponential way. Meaning that the difference between first starter and 10th starter is bigger than between 11th and 20th, and the difference between 30th and 40th starter is very low.
I would say on day 2, 4 and 5 the difference was less. Of course the advantage of late start will always be there. So for the future I would advise to equally devide the runners over the 5 days.
As an example I have calculated the average starttime and startposition for the 5 days. The difference between Desmond Franssen and myself is huge.
At 31/12/10 12:48,
Alex said…
I had an early start time only on the last day! I definitely took benefit of the tracks, especially on day 1 and 3!
Especially on the open fields it was hard without any tracks.
Running in the snow felt different on day 5 than on the other days, as the snow already started to melt. To me it felt harder than the previous days (except the open fields) but I think there were less tracks for late starters as there were more (micro)routechoices (on tracks and in the wood). But maybe in the area of control points there were as much tracks as the days before.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the five days in Belgium!
At 31/12/10 16:15,
Dani Zwiker said…
Interesting table, Dries! :-)
In Switzerland we seldom have discussions like that, as we do not compete in Nov/Dez/Jan/Feb.
We have similar discussions in forests with lots of thorns.
About my race: to slowly and at control nr. 6 I saw the little orange label with the #74 on it but there was no control there. So I thought, that the control is missing and kept going. Well my time was far from good, so I'm not that disappointed :-)
Thanks to everyone and see you for example at Swiss-O-Week 2011 in a terrific terrain, much better than in 2009!! ;-)
At 31/12/10 18:21,
Alex said…
Already looking forward to swiss o week 2011!
With this wonderful terrain it will be an amazing competition!
One of my highlights 2011!
At 2/1/11 19:24,
Anoniem said…
Bel ranking is up to date again:
http://www.mazy.be/BOR/start.php
At 8/1/11 14:58,
Anoniem said…
Weet iemand welke wedstrijd als selectie voor de Interland zal doorgaan?
At 8/1/11 15:26,
Anoniem said…
Volgens website van ploegencommissie:
Interland selectie: In de reeksen D/H-14, D/H-17, D/H-20, D/H open duidt de Ploegencommissie 3 effectieven en 2 reserves aan.
Elk commissielid stuurt voor 5/01/2011 een selectievoorstel naar Sonia die dit samenvat. Het voorstel wordt op de vergadering van 19/01/2011 besproken.
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