27.02.2008 Draguignan - Draguignan (197 km)
Rebellin shows early form
Results:
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Davide Rebellin
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10th at 7"
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101th at 7'53"
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The Tour du Haut Var, ridden on a tough course in the beautiful countryside around the city of Draguignon, smiles traditionnaly to a man who shows good early form, just like did today some of the stars of the race: Rebellin, Valverde, Gilbert, but also Frank Schleck. These riders have been up at the front in all the deciding moments of the race and also at the very end, when victory was to be decided. Freddy Bichot and Miguel Martinez formed an early break for most of the race, before Thor Hushovd launched a suprise attack with around 50 kilometers to go, followed by Moncoutié and Vaugrenard. But the favourites controlled the race and chased for a regroupement before the last difficulty of the day, the côte des Tuillières, next to the suburbs of Draguignan. Davide Rebellin jumped out of his box on the climb with only Rinaldo Nocentini and Alexandre Botcharov being able to follow him. Behind the three, Frank Schleck tried to bridge up together with Valverde and Gilbert. But they were a bit short and never managed to come to the front, before being caught again on the descent to the finish line. Rebellin didn't have any problems to beat Nocentini and Botscharov in the sprint and so he took the victory in this race for the second time after 1999. Seven seconds later only, Anthony Geslin held off the next chasers, among them Frank Schleck took the 10th place at the finish. Andy Schleck, as for him, he rode in the peloton for most of the day. When the main field broke into pieces at the end, the younger brother found himself in a third group of about 40 riders, together with his team-mates Bak and McGee. He finished the race at an easier pace in 101st position, nearly 8 minutes behind Rebellin.
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February 17-24, 2008: 3rd Tour of California
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23.02.2008 6. Santa Barbara - Santa Clarita (175 km)
High Road's bad day: Cavendish penalized, Kirchen abandons
Résultats:
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Luciano Pagliarini
Levi Leipheimer
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DNF
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DNF
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Team High Road didn't have its best day during the 175 kilometer stage of the Tour of California between Santa Barbara and Santa Clarita. Sprinter Mark Cavendish fought well during the several climbs of the tough course and with 10 kilometers to go, he was in very good position for the stage win in the first part of the peloton. But then, 8 kilometers from the finish, he was involved in a crash, just like Cipollini and Fred Rodriguez among others. After having lost some time, Cavendish stepped back onto his bike and, together with Cipollini, he managed the great performance to come back into the field, pass everyone and participate in the final sprint, which above all he won with a big margin. But the officials estimated that the young British rider had been helped by his team-car to get back into the peloton and penalized him, just like Cipollini. They accorded the stage win to the second in the sprint, Luciano Pagliarini, who came over the finish line ahead of JJ Haedo and world champion Bettini. Levi Leipheimer is still wearing the yellow jersey after a stage that had been marked by a 6-man break. Steven Cozza, David Canada Gracia, Rory Sutherland, Alexandre Pichot, Christophe Le Mevel and Karsten Kroon were in the lead for more than 140 kilometers and were caught with only a few of them to go. A surprise-attack from David Millar forced the Astana squad to react with three kilometers to go, but with the help of the sprinter teams, the attempt of the second overall was reduced to nothing just before the final sprint. The other bad news for Team High Road is that Kim Kirchen has abandoned the race. The Luxemburgish rider eventually has quit the peloton at about half race and, a day after his tremendous time-trial result and just as the peloton reaches the Los Angeles area, won't be able to win an oscar any more.
22.02.2008 5. Solvang - Solvang (24 km ITT)
Leipheimer dominates, solid performance from Kirchen
Results:
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Levi Leipheimer
Levi Leipheimer
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10th at 1'28"
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21st auf 8'34"
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Day of the truth today at the Tour of California with a 24 Kilometer time-trial around the town of Solvang, on a mostly flat course with nevertheless a short, but steep hill just in the middle. The first important times were set by Bradley Wiggins, the surprising Tom Zirbel and Janez Brajkovic, the Astana rider who seems to have fully recovered of a difficult day in the front of the peloton as helper of Levi Leipheimer. But another rider rode very well today, and that was Kim Kirchen. He passed in 17'08", in 6th position at the intermediate check point after 12 kilometers, but managed a perfect second half of the course, just to finish in a provisional third place at the finish, in 32'15" at an average speed of 44,6 km/h and one second faster than his team-mate and time-trial specialist Wiggins. But of course, the best were yet to come and the attention was focused on the battle for the overall lead between Cancellara and Leipheimer. The world champion needed to take 13 seconds on the American to take yellow, but didn't really have a great start because he was only in 8th position at the intermediate timing at half-race. Leipheimer on his side had a perfect start and was fastest after 12 kilometers in 16'21", 12 seconds ahead of Millar. On the second half of the course, Cancellara improved but he wasn't able to do anything today against a super-strong Levi Leipheimer, who took the stage victory in 30'47" (average speed 46,7 km/h), 29 seconds faster than David Millar. Christian Vandevelde finished third, Gustav Larsson fourth and Fabian Cancellara in fifth position, 1'05" late on the winner. Kim Kirchen finally ended up in a very good 10th place, 1'28" behind Leipheimer and eventually can look back on another good form test, which makes optimistic after a difficult stage yesterday. Of course, Leipheimer consolidates his lead in the overall classification, where he has now 49 seconds advantage on David Millar and 1'08" on another Slipstream rider, Christian Vandevelde. Before the last two stages, Kim Kirchen is now in 21st position at 8'34".
21.02.2008 4. Seaside - San Luis Obispo (217 km)
Rollin the hero
Results:
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Dominique Rollin
Levi Leipheimer
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55th at 5'05"
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22nd at 7'05"
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The traditionnal trip over Highway 1 alongside the coast took place between Seaside in the South of San Francisco and San Luis Obispo, on a really tricky course with ups and downs all the time, without a single meter of flat and with a thousand turns. Add to this the crappy weather with rain, wind and cold, the exceptionnal distance (217 km) for an early-season race and the wave of flu among the riders and you understand quickly that they didn't have a comfortable day at all out there. Lots of riders didn't line up today or abandonned through the race and even the broom wagon was overfilled. Despite all this, the stage started quickly with lots of attacks. Astana controlled things quite well and quickly allowed a bigger group of around ten riders to break away in order to calm down the attacks, but without never letting grow the gap to more than four minutes. Most aggressive rider George Hincapie was again up there, the team-mate of Kim Kirchen, together with riders like Mollema, Iker Camano, Wyss or Jackson Stewart who has already shown himself in stage one. Hincapie was the one who drove the break, taking most of the turns and motivating the other riders to go on and on. Behind them, CSC took over with around 20 kilometers to go and split the peloton into pieces, but it was already too late. If most of the riders out of the break were caught at the end, three of them resisted: Dominique Rollin who had taken the lead alone with a powerful attack 15 kilometers from the finish, Hincapie and Camano. Hincapie had perhaps already done too much during the day and in the suburbs of San Luis Obispo, home of the High Road team, the two chasers were not able to bridge up to Rollin. The Toyota-United rider was able to celebrate a superb victory after a trully heroic ride. Ciolek and Cavendish were the fastest out of the first peloton 2 minutes later, whereas Kim Kirchen was not present among the around 50 riders of this group. The Luxemburgish rider finished three more minutes later 55th position, in a small group with among others Hayman or Ardila. He looses some places overall where he is now placed in 22nd position, 7 minutes late on yellow jersey Leipheimer.
20.02.2008 3. Modesto - San Jose (152 km)
Stage win for Gesink, yellow for Leipheimer
Résultats:
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Robert Gesink
Levi Leipheimer
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26th at 4'20"
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17th at 4'28"
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The third stage of the 2008 edition between Modesto and San José was meant to be a key stage with 5 classified climbs, among them Mount Hamilton, culminating at 1250 metres of altitude and the roof of the Tour. Like expected, a group of riders broke clear at the beginning, trying to anticipate on the big climbs later on the day, but Cozza, Nydam (again him), Martens and Lemoine were caught one by one on Mount Hamilton. Astana with Rubiera set the pace on the climb for Leipheimer and the peloton got smaller and smaller. Around 20 riders only got together across the highest point, among them also Kim Kirchen, who seemed to have fully recovered after a crash at the beginning of the stage, during which he hit his right arm. George Hincapie, new team-mate of the Luxemburger at High Road, broke clear on the descent and presented himself alone at the foot of Sierra Road, the last climb of the day. But he was also victim of the high pace set by Astana and caught again on the uphill. A little bit further on, Robert Gesink accelerated even more and only Leipheimer was able to hold onto the wheel of the Rabobank rider. The two of them crossed the top of Sierra Road several seconds ahead of Zabriskie and Horner, whereas Kim Kirchen hadn't been able to follow the next chasers. Together with riders like Freire and Kohl, he let himself drop back to the next group. On the descent, Zabriskie and Horner were caught by the first chasing group including among others Millar, Cancellara or Julich, but Leipheimer and Gesink were able to keep a narrow gap until the very end, where the American didn't contest the sprint to the young climber. So Gesink takes the stage victory ahead of Leipheimer and, 19 seconds later, a Quick-Step duo composed by Jurgen VandeValle and Kevin Seeldraeyers. But the defending champion shoudn't be too sad about the missed stage win, because he takes over the yellow leader jersey from Tyler Farrar, who did not finish the stage after stomach problems. Before tomorrow's stage with hilly final and Friday's time-trial, the American National Champion has 13 seconds advantage on Cancellara and 15 on Gesink. Kim Kirchen finished the stage in the second group, 4'20" down in 26th position and should be pleased with his first formtest, despite the early crash. In the overall classification, he is still in 17th place, but is now more than five minutes late on leader Leipheimer.
19.02.2008 2. Santa Rosa - Sacramento (187 km)
Tom Boonen wins on a rainy day
Results:
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Tom Boonen
Tyler Farrar
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39th at 0"
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17th at 15"
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The image of California as sunny state has been fairly damaged today, because the second stage between Santa Rosa and the state capital Sacramento took place under very bad weather conditions. And the riders didn't really have the time to warm up since shortly after the start, one of the most spectacular climbs of the race awaited the riders: the Trinity Grade climb, reknowned for its steep slopes, but also its dangerous descent. The difficulties of the course and the bad weather didn't prevent BMC from sending again a man on the attack. Local Scott Nydam attacked after 5 kilometers and, just like his team-mate yesterday, he managed to build up a big gap of nearly a quarter of an hour, whereas the chasing Johnny Sundt never managed to bridge up to the front. The second half of the course was mostly flat and the same teams like the day before controlled the race and led the peloton to another massive sprint: CSC, Quick-Step, Slipstream and High road. The latter opened the sprint very early and Mark Cavendish had a gap of thirty meters with just a few length to go. But the rider form Isle of Man wasn't able to resist to the tremendous return of Tom Boonen, who took the victory with Haussler and the surprising Cipollini in his wheel. At 41 years of age, the Italian doesn't seem to have lost many of his skills. Due to the bonification seconds that he had collected through the stage, Tyler Farrar took the overall lead, making sure that the yellow jersey returned on American shoulders. Kim Kirchen has employed similar tactics to yesterday during the stage: riding attentively and mostly at the front of the pack to avoid crashes. He also lend a hand to the sprinters Ciolek and Cavendish to help them coming over the stage and into position as good as possible.
18.02.2008 1. Sausalito - Santa Rosa (156 km)
J.J. Haedo brings further joy to CSC
Results:
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Juan-José Haedo
Fabian Cancellara
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19th at 0"
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17th at 14"
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Two victories in two days, that's the rather enjoyable account of CSC after stage one of the Tour of California. Eventually, Juan-José Haedo has clearly dominated the bunch sprint in Santa Rosa and took the stage victory with two lengths advantage on Gerald Ciolek and Heinrich Haussler. Of course, CSC had worked a lot during the stage to bring its sprinter in position and to control the peloton, together with Quick-Step, Slipstream and also High Road. It was Jackson Stewart who animated the race during a while since he broke away after 15 kilometers and headed off for a long, long solo ride that brought him up to 13 minutes of advantage. But it was mission impossible for one man alone and the climb of Coleman Valley complicated things a lot for a tiring rider. It was shortly after this climb, with around 30 kilometers to go, that Stewart was caught again by the first part of the bunch, which had split into two pieces after an acceleration of Danny Pate on Coleman Valley. Quick-Step was very active preparing the sprint and they reeled in Alexander Moos who tried a suprise attack with two kilometers to go. But the riders in white and blue were not rewarded well for their work since Tom Boonen didn't match up at all and Tossato took fifth position. Kim Kirchen rode today like he always does when the legs and the head are OK: at the front. He was seen numerous times among the very first of the field and in the end, Kim put himself at the service of Gerald Ciolek, which he tried to bring into the best possible position for the sprint together with his team-mates.
17.02.2008 Prologue in Palo Alto (3,4 km)
World champion wins opening act
Results:
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Fabian Cancellara
Fabian Cancellara
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23rd at 14"
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23rd at 14"
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After the Schleck brothers in the Tour de San Luis, it is now Kim Kirchen's turn to open the 2008 road season and just like last year, he has chosen to line up in the Tour of California, an event that grows further on and has a great number of big names at the start this year. No surprise in the prologue where the battle between the world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara and the world and Olympic poursuit champion Bradley Wiggins turned in favour of the first one. On the large roads, slightly uphill and with only few turns, the man from Switzerland used perfectly his enormous power and he took the stage win in 3'51", at the average speed of 53 km/h and four seconds ahead of the British rider, new team-mate of Kim Kirchen at High road. The Luxemburgish rider, on his side, raced very well on a course that really didn't favour him. In 4'05" and at 50 km/h average speed, Kim took 23rd position at 14 seconds of Cancellara, in the same time than riders like Tom Boonen, Australian time-trial champion Adam Hansen or Bobby Julich. Team High Road made a very good overall impression with three riders in the Top 10, Wiggins (2nd), Boasson Hagen (5th) and Cavendish (8th) as well as 7 riders in the Top 25. With a fourth place behind Cancellara, Wiggins and Tyler Farrar, Californian native and defending champion Levi Leipheimer underlined his ambitions to succeed to himself as overall winner in the state of Governator. To be noted also the spectacular comeback of Mario Cipollini, who took a good 44th place in the prologue, 17 seconds late on the winner.
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January - February 2008: Cyclo-cross season
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17.02.2008: Sluitingsprijs Oostmalle (GVA)
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Niels Albert
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DNF
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The last week-end of the cyclo-cross winter 2007/2008 was just like the whole season for Jempy Drucker: yesterday at the Top with a second place in Voorselar, today annoyed by health problems in Oostmalle: eventually, he did not finish the race due to back problems. It's very annoying, since the race has begun very well for Drucker: together with riders like Aernouts, Stybar, Groenendaal, Vanthourenhout, Meeusen or else Al, he was battling hard for the places 10 to 15. Anyway, the overall victory in the GVA trophy was quickly decided: team-mate and leader Tom Meeusen had a big gap and clearly showed his determination today by finished in 14th place with the big guns. Among the stars of cyclo-cross, the newcomers are getting more and more famous, after world champion Lars Boom, it is now Niels Albert who dominates at the end of the season by taking his second victory in just as many days. In fact, the young Palmans rider dominated the race clearly and, just as last year, he took off early in the sand of Oostmalle and had nealry a minute advantage at the end on second-placed Bart Wellens, who held down Boom in a very narrow sprint for second place. Sven Nys finished fourth today and this was enough for him to take the overall victory in the elite GVA rankings. After a second place in the Superprestige series, Jempy Drucker also finishes second in the U23 GVA Trophy and thus finishes off his up- and down season on a positive note. But besides four victory's and several other tremendous performances, Jempy also had lots of misfortune during the season and although he will be wearing the red-white-blue jersey of National champion next year, his future isn't secured yet at all.
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16.02.2008: Superprestige Vorselaar
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Tom Meeusen
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2nd at 0"
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Three little points !!! That is what Jempy Drucker lacked to take the final overall victory in the Superprestige rankings, the most traditionnal series in cyclo-cross since it exists for 26 years now. Before the last round in Voorselar, the town of his team-mate Bart Wellens, it was clear the Jempy needed to perform very well in order to grab the lead from Thihs Van Amerongen. From the beginning, the Luxemburgish rider showed his strength and took over the lead in the first lap together with Taramarcaz, Meeusen, Van Amerongen, Sinkeldam, Bastaens and Walsleben. Meeusen and Sinkeldam dominated the next couple of laps but on a dry and ultra-fast course, where the riders nearly averaged 30 km/h, Drucker hadn't said his last word yet. Together with team-mate Bastaens, he bridged up to the leading duo before attacking himself in the penultimate lap. Only Belgian champion Tom Meeusen managed to hold his wheel, only to beat him in a two-man sprint at the end. One bike length behind Meeusen, Jempy took the second place of the day and completed the Fidea-triumph on nearly-home ground. And Van Amerongen? He didn't have a very good day, but managed the race very well and limited the losses by riding at his own rythm. The Dutch rider finally finished 7th of the day and thus took the overall Superprestige win by a very narrow margin over Jempy Drucker.
10.02.2008: Internationale cyclo-cross Heerlen (C1)
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Klaas Vantornout
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12th at 2'00"
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This is one of the weird things about modern cyclo-cross, managed by Flemish moneymakers: the race in Heerlen in the Netherlands, ranked in the UCI category one, was far away from having such a strong line-up than the one in Eeklo the day before, although the Belgian event is ranked only category 2, the same category as the cross in Contern. So no Nys and Wellens in Heerlen, but also no Vervecken, Albert, Vantourenhout, Simunek or else Mourey. But it was the same man who dominated the two races, namely Klaas Vantornout who knows a very strong end of the season after his month of January was spoiled by injuries. On a dry and ultra-fast course, the decision naturally fell only late, since there were still 15 riders in contention for the victory at half-race, among them most of the favourites, but also a very strong Jempy Drucker. In the second half of the race, this group of course fell into pieces after accelerations of Boom and Vantornout, followed by Page, Al, Aernouts and Groenendael. In the penultimate lap, the world champion tried his luck once again by attacking, and only Vantornout was able to hang onto his wheel, only to beat him at the end in a two-man sprint. Jempy Drucker finally finished in 12th position like yesterday, again just ahead of Zdenek Stybar and he was also noted second U23 rider, one spot and only seven seconds behind Van Amerongen.
09.02.2008: Grote Prijs de Eeklonaar (C2)
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Klaas Vantornout
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12th at 1'51"
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Jempy Drucker doesn't cease to astonish us with great performances since after having won the cyclo-cross in Hoogstraten in the U23 category last week-end, he finished this Saturday in 12th position in the elite-cross of Eeklo, where most of the world's top riders showed up. After a tremendous ride, Jempy crossed the line just a few lengths behind Francis Mourey, but ahead of riders like World Champion Lars Boom or his runner-up in Treviso, Zdenek Stybar. It was Bart Wellens who had the fastest start, but after having been alone in the lead for two laps, he was joined at the head of the race by his team-mate Klaas Vantornout, winner of the Grand-prix de la Commune de Contern in 2005. The two riders took a nice gap on Albert, Simunek, Vervecken, Aernouts, Sven Vanthourenhout and Mourey who chased had behind them without being able to reduce the gap. During this time, Jempy Drucker was one minute and a half behind the leading duo in a very prominent group with Groenendael, Stybar and Boom. Albert tried to bridge up alone to the leaders in the last laps, but it was already too late: on the last run-up, Klaas Vantornout managed to get rid of Wellens and won the race with a few meters advantage on his team-mate. Jempy finally finished the race in an excellent 12th position, just 1'51" behind the winner and 5 seconds slower than Philipp Walsleben, another U23-rider who his able to match up with the big guns.
03.02.2008: Superprestige Hoogstraten (U23)
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Jempy Drucker
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winner
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A good week-end for Jempy Drucker who, following his third place in Lille, finally takes in Hoogstraten his first Superprestige victory in his career, after having collected a number of honour places during the last few years in this prestigious series. After on lap however, things didn't look that good for Drucker, because it was Philipp Walsleben who had attacked very early and who was leading the race with a serious gap already on Kloucek, Taramarcaz and Van Amerongen. The Luxemburgish rider himself was riding in a group further back. But two laps later, whereas Walsleben was victim of a mechanical and fell back, Jempy had bridged up to the leaders together with his team-mates Bastaens and Meeusen: a new race began. The Fidea riders of course tried to take advantage of their numeric superiority and attacked one after the other. Former European champion Bastaens got a little gap with Drucker in his wheel and when the Luxemburgish rider himself accelerated, he found himself in the lead of the race with more than one lap to go. But Jempy didn't fade in the last round and thus was able to celebrate his fourth victory of the season after Leudelange, Contern and Essen. 8 seconds behind him, his team-mate Bastaens took the second place in a sprint ahead of Van Amerongen, who remains in the lead of the Superprestige overall rankings, with now 9 points advantage on Taramarcaz and 13 on Drucker in third position.
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02.02.2008: Kravattencross Lille (GVA - U23)
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Thijs Van Amerongen
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3rd at 39"
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On the sandy course of Lille, Jempy Drucker has battled for the victory during a long time, even if Thijs Van Amerongen clearly appeared as the strongest today. The former Dutch champion eventually took off in the first lap already, leaving behind him a big group containing among others Drucker, Walsleben, Meeusen, Kloucek, Bertholet, Bastaens ... But the gaps were small and during the third lap, Drucker felt his chance was coming and he initiated the chase behind the leader together with Walsleben. The duo came closer and closer to Van Amerongen when the Luxemburgish rider attacked. But Walsleben was strong and accelerated on his side, leaving Drucker behind him. The German rider tried to bridge up to the leader, but Van Amerongen resisted until the end and finally cut the white line as winner with 8 seconds advantage on Walsleben. Jempy had lost some time in the last lap, but nevertheless managed to finish in a good 3rd spot, 39 seconds down. With one round to go, he remains in second position overall in the GVA trophy, 28 points behind his team-mate Meeusen.
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