Vos, Gavenda, and Viennet Crowned European Champions, Belgium Shut Out – Full Reports

by Bart Hazen

The Netherlands’ Marianne Vos soloed to a dominant win to take the European Cyclocross Championships over her teammate Daphny van den Brand and Britain’s Helen Wyman. Slovakia’s Gavenda took the U23 title, and France’s Viennet took the Junior title.

Junior Men

The 2009 European Championships in Hoogstraten (Belgium) kicked-off this morning with the Juniors race. The gold medal went as expected to the leader in the World Cup, France’s Emilien Viennet. Home rider Laurens Sweeck finished as second and Dutch Michiel van der Heijden as third. Two other Dutch riders, Mike Teunissen and Gert-Jan Bosman, completed the top five.

Second year junior Viennet took the hole shot. The winner of the first World Cup in Treviso immediately took a lead of over ten seconds on a chasing group with Laurens Sweeck (Belgium), Michiel van der Heijden (The Netherlands) and Mike Teunissen (The Netherlands).

After several laps Sweeck dropped the two Dutch riders and would gain back time on Viennet, but couldn’t quite bridge up to the French rider. For Viennet it’s his first international title in his career.

The new European champ said, “My season is already a success with this jersey. The Europeans were not my main target, that will be the World Championships in Tabor.”

U23 Men (Espoirs)

World Cup leader Robert Gavenda is the new U23 European Champion. The Slovakian of the Telenet-Fidea team was the best in a dramatic race over Poland’s Pawel Szczepaniak and Belgium’s Tom Meeusen. Poland’s Kacper Szczepaniak and Italy’s Elia Silvestri completed the top five.

The U23 race was fast but featured tight, exciting. New BKCP-Powerplus signing Arnaud Jouffroy (France) took the holeshot with Italy’s Elia Silvestri. The duo stayed in front for a few laps before Slovakian Champion Robert Gavenda and the Polish Szczepaniak brothers took over.

In the final lap, the trio was joined by Tom Meeusen, the surprising Elia Silvestri and reigning Junior World Champion, France’s Arnaud Jouffroy. With two laps to go, Gavenda, the strongest rider in the race, dropped the others to win solo with a small lead over his former break companions.

For Gavenda it’s his third big win of the season after the World Cup in Treviso and the win in the Koppenberg cross last week.

Vos Hoards Another Crown

Marianne Vos has added another title to her impressive palmares. The Dutch World Champion soloed to the gold medal after taking the lead in the second lap. Daphny van den Brand, who returned in competition after an illness, finished in second and Britain’s Helen Wyman as third. Czech duo Katerina Nash and the winner of the Koppenberg race Pavla Havlikova completed the top five.

Dutch Champion Daphny van den Brand took the holeshot and led the race for a lap and ahalf. Dutch star Reza Hormes had to abandon the race after a crash just a few hundred meters after the start. World Champion Marianne Vos, competing in her third race of the season, had to start in the back of the field once again due to a lack of UCI points. Vos quickly bridged up to the front before getting rid of Van den Brand and Wyman in the second lap.

For second place, the battle was tighter as Daphny van den Brand and Helen Wyman were caught by a chasing group containing Katerina Nash, Pavla Havlikova, Sanne van Paassen and Christel Ferrier-Bruneau. In the last lap Van den Brand and later also Wyman were able to drop the others to finish second and third, respectively, behind the unapproachable Marianne Vos.

For Vos the win in Hoogstraten is her second European title of her career and also her second win of the season after Woerden.

The reigning World Champion was clearly happy. “My second European title! This is beautiful, even after all my Olympic and World titles. This was my third race of the season, and my second win. On the Koppenberg last week I had bad luck while riding in the lead.”

Wyman was satisfied with her result, as it was her first major championship medal and comes in a fine run of form.  “I came really close to a medal in the Euro’s a few years ago, but a double puncture stopped that attempt,” she explained. “I’m just so happy things have gone my way and I’m able to be on the podium in a major championship.”

Luna’s Katerina Nash (CZE) skipped the NACT’s  Colorado weekend to make a run at the European title, but was one place off the podium in fourth. Full results below.

Photo Gallery:

Full Results:

Elite Women:

Rank	Name	Nat.	Age*	Result	PaR
1	Marianne VOS	NED	23	38:40	150
2	Daphny VAN DEN BRAND	NED	32	39:17	100
3	Helen WYMAN	GBR	29	39:22	70
4	Katerina NASH	CZE	33	39:30	50
5	Pavla HAVLIKOVA	CZE	27	39:35	30
6	Sanne VAN PAASSEN	NED	22	39:48	20
7	Christel FERRIER-BRUNEAU	FRA	31	40:11	17
8	Caroline MANI	FRA	23	40:11	15
9	Joyce VANDERBEKEN	BEL	26	40:40	12
10	Sanne CANT	BEL	20	40:44	10
11	Linda VAN RIJEN	NED	22	40:46	8
12	Katrin LEUMANN	SUI	28	40:47	6
13	Saskia ELEMANS	NED	33	41:01	4
14	Lucie CHAINEL LEFEVRE	FRA	27	41:12	2
15	Evelyn STAFFLER	ITA	26	41:30	1
16	Nadia TRIQUET-CLAUDE	FRA	32	41:34
17	Jana KYPTOVA	CZE	25	41:38
18	Arenda GRIMBERG	NED	32	41:43
19	Pauline FERRAND PREVOT	FRA	18	41:43
20	Gabriella DAY	GBR	26	41:50
21	Sophie DE BOER	NED	20	41:58
22	Veronica ALESSIO	ITA	23	42:01
23	Elisabeth BRANDAU	GER	25	42:14
24	Sabrina SCHWEIZER	GER	20	42:19
25	Elke RIEDL	AUT	39	43:15
26	Nancy BOBER	BEL	35	43:43
27	Lise-Marie HENZELIN	SUI	19	44:17
28	Martina MIKULÁŠKOVÁ	CZE	17	44:45
29	Zuzana PIRZKALLOVÁ	CZE	17
30	Eszter DOSA	HUN	27

Espoirs:

Rank	Name	Nat.	Age*	Result	PaR
1	Robert GAVENDA	SVK	22	50:26	100
2	Pawel SZCZEPANIAK	POL	21	50:31	60
3	Tom MEEUSEN	BEL	22	50:34	40
4	Kacper SZCZEPANIAK	POL	20	50:34	30
5	Elia SILVESTRI	ITA	20	50:53	25
6	Jim AERNOUTS	BEL	21	50:53	20
7	Arnaud JOUFFROY	FRA	20	50:53	17
8	Kenneth VAN COMPERNOLLE	BEL	22	50:53	15
9	Matthieu BOULO	FRA	21	51:07	12
10	Jan DENUWELAER	BEL	22	51:18	10
11	Lars VAN DER HAAR	NED	19	51:18	8
12	Mitchell HUENDERS	NED	22	51:26	6
13	Stef BODEN	BEL	20	51:38	4
14	Twan VAN DEN BRAND	NED	21	51:45	2
15	Kevin CANT	BEL	22	51:51	1
16	Ole QUAST	GER	21	51:51
17	Jiri POLNICKY	CZE	21	51:51
18	Tijmen EISING	NED	19	51:51
19	Matteo TRENTIN	ITA	21	52:04
20	Arnaud GRAND	SUI	20	52:04
21	Micki VAN EMPEL	NED	20	52:25
22	Marcel MEISEN	GER	21	52:48
23	Corne VAN KESSEL	NED	19	52:48
24	Jan NESVADBA	CZE	19	52:58
25	Kobus HEREIJGERS	NED	21	53:04
26	Sven BEELEN	BEL	20	53:04
27	Irwin GRAS	FRA	19	53:04
28	Thibault TABOURY	FRA	21	53:04
29	Michael WINTERBERG	SUI	20	53:07
30	Alessandro CALDERAN	ITA	21	53:24
31	Fabian DANNER	GER	20	53:24
32	Filip ADEL	CZE	20	53:30
33	Melvin RULLIERE	FRA	21	53:35
34	Max WALSLEBEN	GER	20	53:48
35	Karel HNIK	CZE	19	53:48
36	Matthias RUPP	SUI	20	53:48
37	Michael SCHWEIZER	GER	19	53:53
38	Lubomir PETRUS	CZE	20	53:56
39	David MENGER	CZE	22	54:45
40	Théo VIMPERE	FRA	20	55:01
41	Eric BRUNGGER	SUI	20	55:08
42	Enno QUAST	GER	19	55:50
43	Nico BRÜNGGER	SUI	22	56:18
44	Geert VAN DER HORST	NED	20
45	Domenico maria SALVIANI	ITA	19

Juniors:

Rank	Name	Nat.	Age*	Result	PaR
1	Emilien VIENNET	FRA	18	40:51	30
2	Laurens SWEECK	BEL	17	41:02	20
3	Michiel VAN DER HEIJDEN	NED	18	41:14	15
4	Mike TEUNISSEN	NED	18	41:33	12
5	Gert-Jan BOSMAN	NED	18	41:39	10
6	Jens ADAMS	BEL	18	41:39	8
7	Emiel DOLFSMA	NED	18	41:42	6
8	Matej LASAK	CZE	18	41:44	4
9	Michael BOROS	CZE	18	41:52	2
10	Danny VAN POPPEL	NED	17	41:57	1
11	Jens VANDEKINDEREN	BEL	17	42:02
12	Gianni VERMEERSCH	BEL	18	42:14
13	Lars FORSTER	SUI	17	42:14
14	Tomas PAPRSTKA	CZE	18	42:16
15	Daniel VESELY	CZE	18	42:20
16	David MENUT	FRA	18	42:27
17	Fabio Alfonso TODARO	ITA	18	42:30
18	Bastien DUCULTY	FRA	18	42:34
19	Wenzel BÖHM-GRÄBER	GER	18	42:37
20	Clément LE BRAS	FRA	18	42:37
21	Xandro MEURISSE	BEL	18	43:00
22	Fabian LIENHARD	SUI	17	43:07
23	Julien EHLINGER	FRA	18	43:11
24	Radek POLNICKY	CZE	18	43:15
25	Vojtech NIPL	CZE	17	43:24
26	David VAN DER POEL	NED	18	43:30
27	Nicolas SAMPARISI	ITA	18	43:30
28	Diether SWEECK	BEL	17	43:40
29	Pietro SANTINI	ITA	18	43:44
30	Daniel MCLAY	GBR	18	43:50
31	Julian LEHMANN	GER	17	43:50
32	Thomas MOSES	GBR	18	43:57
33	Floris DE TIER	BEL	18	44:01
34	Kenny KASTELIJN	NED	17	44:06
35	Ondrej ŽNIVA	CZE	17	44:19
36	Andrea SOTTOCORNOLA	ITA	17	44:36
37	Dylan PAGE	SUI	17	44:43
38	Andrea RIGHETTINI	ITA	18	44:43
39	Etienne BRIARD	FRA	18	45:06
40	Johannes CORDS	GER	17	45:07
41	Tobias DEPRIE	GER	18	45:10
42	Jakub SKALA	CZE	17	45:23
43	Lex REICHLING	LUX	18	46:24
44	Rudy LORENZON	ITA	18	46:35
45	Alec BRIGGS	GBR	17	46:46