Sylvester stage 1: Tomas Hendrickx and Claire Ward

In class H21E we saw an easy victory for Tomas Hendrickx (Bel) ahead of Christoph Brandt (Ger) and Desmond Franssen (Bel). In womens class the top-3 included only foreign runners: Claire Ward (Gbr) ahead of Sophie Tritschler (Sui) and Iliana Ilieva (Bul).

Today the sylvester 5-days took off in Weelde (north of Belgium) with stage 1. The map wasn't the most technical/demanding,  so it was important to have the highest running speed. In mens class Tomas Hendrickx took an easy victory. He made a few small mistakes, but he ran much faster than his opponents. Tomorrow at the WRE 40 instead of 17 participants will be present. We are curious if Hendrickx will be victorious again in the slower, hilly and more technical terrain in Vierveld.

Claire Ward won stage 1 (Photo: worldofo)

In womens class Sophie Tritschler was almost as fast as Claire Ward (in the end of the race even faster). But in the end the difference between both runners was only 1'17 and Claire Ward took the victory. Also in class D21E the startfield will be stronger tomorrow. Amelie Chataing, Miek Fabré, Aline Hermans and Anastasia Denisova will challenge Claire Ward.

Results
Splits
Map (H21E - Desmond Franssen)

Tomorrow GPS tracking will be organised for the 2nd time ever in Belgium (Flanders). Below you can see the links to follow both races:
- WRE race Sylvester 2013 MEN (starting from 10:40)
- WRE race Sylvester 2013 WOMEN (starting from 11:20)