This afternoon the men U23 will ride their world championship time trial. The first rider will start at 14:00. The Lotto Belisol U23 team has two riders in the Belgian selection of three: Victor Campenaerts and Frederik Frison. Campenaerts is the reigning Belgian and European champion in this discipline. In the Czech Republic in Brno he let the Ukrainian Golovash behind him, the German Jasha Sütterlin became third. At the Belgian championship in Maldegem on the 11th of August he was six seconds faster than teammate Frederik Frison, who won the provincial championship time trial of Antwerp and the test time trial in Angreau this season. Campenaerts, who also won the time trial of the GP des Hauts de France, was the best in the test time trials in Opoeteren and Borlo. Today’s time trial is 42,79 km long and brings the riders from Pistoia to the Mandela Forum in Florence, where all races end. The course is the same as that of the team time trial for women yesterday.
Friday afternoon the road race for U23 men is programmed. Also there Lotto Belisol is represented, this time by Tiesj Benoot and Louis Vervaeke. Benoot is a first years in the U23 category and won a stage in the Vuelta a Madrid and one in the Vuelta a Palencia this year. He was the overall winner of the Tour de Moselle. Vervaeke, who’s riding in the U23 category for the second year, became 4th in the GC of the Giro Valle d’Aosta and the Tour des Pays de Savoie. Originally also Sean De Bie was part of the Belgian selection of six, but the European champion on the road who becomes pro at Lotto Belisol next year, pulled back.
The road race U23 is 172,79 km long. At 13:00 the start will be given in Montecatini Terme. After 57,2 km the riders enter the local circuit in and around Florence. They have to cover seven laps of 16,6 km. In Fiesole a hill of 4,37 km with an average gradient of 5,2% with a maximum of 9% is will be waiting for the riders each lap. After the descent there’s the Via Salviati, 600 meters at 10,2% average and a maximum of 16%! About three kilometers before the finish the road goes shortly upwards, then it’s as good as flat to the end.
A day later the women elite will ride their road race. They get the same course, but with only five laps, good for a distance of 139,65 km. There will be three riders of the Lotto Belisol Ladies at the start: Ashleigh Moolman, Carlee Taylor and Celine Van Severen. The South-African national champion Moolman greatly became third in this year’s Flèche Wallonne. In August she was forced to abandon the Route de France with a hand injury, she had a strong return. In the Tour de l’Ardèche she was second in the overall classification. The Australian Carlee Taylor got the sixth place in GC after among other a fourth place in stage five. Finally there is Celine Van Severen, just become 20. This year she was 27th in the Flèche Wallonne where she supported her teammate Moolman. In the fourth stage of the Ardèche she became 9th and proved again her climbing capacities. In the national selection she finds Belgian champion Liesbet De Vocht, who will be riding for the Lotto Belisol Ladies next year.”
23/09: U23 time trial (14:00): Victor Campenaerts (15:46:30) and Frederik Frison (14:24:00)
27/09: U23 road race (13:00): Tiesj Benoot and Louis Vervaeke
28/09: Women elite road race (14:00): Ashleigh Moolman, Carlee Taylor and Celine Van Severen