1st Belgian national race in 2011: results and map

Last sunday the first national competition in Belgium took place, more exactly in Stoumont. In 2010 this map was used for the national long distance championships (results 2010). The runability now was a little bit better compared to the previous race (the effect of the snow during last winter). So the coursesetters decided to make the courses even longer than the champs last year. 15.3km (men elite) and 9.8km (women elite) were surpringly long for a first long distance race this season.

On forehand there were rumours that this race would introduce a mass start in elite classes, but finally it became a classic individual race again. The starttimes were probably 'random', it's a pitty that there is still no rule for it. Also for the Belgian champs the national commission didn't accept the Hermathenae-proposal...

Fabien Pasquasy (winner in H21E) next to his friend from Halden SK

The race itself: the terrain isn't the most technical demanding, but it was important to stay focused and to avoid making mistakes. Physically the terrain is pretty hard specially because of some steep climbs. Also the coursesetting was very nice with a few long legs which caused some routechoices (e.g. control 8 in H21E). In mens elite class almost all strong runners were present, but Fabien Pasquasy succeeded to dominate the race. He represented a Norwegian topclub (dressed in red-blue-white colours) and this made him forget his stomach problems from the previous days. Technically he performed strong and also physically he was the strongest (only in the end he was suffering). Thomas van der Kleij showed that he's ready for the season and finished in 2nd position. Pieter Hendrickx (silver at the long champs) finished in 3rd position. So actually no surprises since the top3 from the Belgian ranking were all on the podium.

Thomas van der Kleij (2nd in H21E) - photo: champagne-info.net

In womens class Severine vanderMeulen surprised everybody by winning this event. She won ahead of teammate Dorota Kosinska and Elisabeth Henkes. Greet Oeyen (one of the favourits) didn't run her best race and finished in 7th position. Kim Geypen made her comeback after an injury and didn't complete the whole race. Miek Fabre was absent because of running springcup in Denmark (results: 11th on saturday in D21E and 13th in the relay).

The next goal for most of these runners will be the national middle champs next month (17/04).

Results
Splits
Map and routechoices: Yannick Michiels (part1 - part2), Michael Vanbaelen (part 1 - part2), Desmond Franssen (map)
Belgian ranking