18th September
The season long Belgian domestic competition, the Wielertrofee Vlaanderen comes to an end this weekend with the final round, the 2nd GP JOWAN Bike-Technology at Ruien-Kluisbergen in the west of Belgium, just a few miles east of Roubaix and close by the Kwaremont of RVV fame. Not that they head that way today, the course looks like a figure of eight, although I suspect that it just touches itself rather than crossing over. The women ride six laps of a short 6km circuit around Ruien, then five laps of a longer 12km circuit that climbs the Kluisberg ( photo) (or the Enclus du Haut if you are a Francophone – we are once again right on the linguistic border), before finishing with another six laps of the shorter circuit for a total race length of 102km.
Image via www.wielertrofee-vlaanderen.be
The Wielertrofee Vlaanderen is a series of 7 races, roughly one a month that runs between March and September, and this year it has been dominated by one rider, Grace Verbeke. You can see the individual race results here, and these are the top five in the overall rankings so far:
VERBEKE Grace (Lotto Ladies Cycling) 500 punten
DE VUYST Sofie (Lotto Ladies Cycling) 372 punten
DUFOER Sjoukje (Topsport Vlaanderen) 290 punten
SILVERSIDES Emma (RedSun Cycling Team) 260 punten
DEBBOUDT Lensy (Keukens Redant C.T ) 259 punten
They run a sort of mini QOM competition too, and here are the top 3 in that Bergklassement:
VERBEKE Grace (Lotto- Ladies Cycling) 114 punten * Eindwinaar !!
AUNE Karin (FENIXS - Pertrogradets) 35 punten
DEBBOUDT Lensy (Keukens Redant C T ) 15 punten
Sprint prize, or Rushesklassement:
VERBEKE Grace (Lotto Ladies Cycling Team) 97 punten
DEBBOUDT Lensy (Keukens Redant Cycling Team) 57 punten
AUNE Karin (Fenixs - Petrogradets) 46 punten
That’s pretty inpressive going. In fact there are only two classes she’s not leading, the young rider:
DE VUYST Sofie (Lotto-Ladies Cycling Team) 372 punten
DUFOER Sjoukje (Topsport-Vlaanderen) 290 punten
BRULEE Latoya (RedSun Cycling Team) 218 punten
And the Lotto Strijdlust, which looks like a most aggressive rider award so may be awarded race to race as only one name is listed there, Emma Silversides of Red Sun.
Last year a small group got away and Emma Johansson outsprinted Lizzie Armitstead, while her Red Sun teammate Ludivine Henrion came in third. This year those first two are in Toscana, and I have yet to see a full start list (the organisers have just this so far). Will Grace be there just to really show how much she owns this series?
We’ve yet to find a regular source for video of these races, but if you stumble across anything then please let us know below.