Michiels wins day 1 of Veluwe 2-days (NL)

Yannick Michiels and Miek Fabré won the first day of the two days event in the Netherlands. In the fast but sometimes tricky terrains near Harderwijk, Michiels was more than one minute faster than Sergey Fedatsenka of Belarus and two minutes faster than Desmond Franssen of Trol-Belgium. Michiels started two minutes behind Franssen and caught up with him just a few controls before the finish. Tomorrow, Franssen will start two minutes after Michiels. The sprint between the two runners today was already important for the final ranking and even though Franssen had a lot of juice left in his legs after the tough heather race, it was Michiels who won the valuable seconds. Both runners, like pretty much all Belgian runners in the top 10, did not have an ideal preparation for the event. We expect the Dutch runners to be on top tomorrow.




In the women's class Miek Fabré was outstanding. She should probably run in the men's class, as the competition is getting depressed. The men would in any case, not be happy, optimism is something one can learn, but in that case it would be hard to be optimistic. We do not know the rest of the ranking, but we do know that the number two was more than 10 minutes behind.

Results
Splits
Map with route choices (Desmond Franssen)

Tomorrow, the second stage will be run nearby in the sand dune terrain of Beekhuizerzand. Competitors can expect technically challenging races and spectators will be able to see a tough competition for the first places in both the men's and women's classes.