EK09 Road Wrap: Rise of the Belgians

Thanks in no small part to an individual 5-gold haul from Bart Swings, and 8-medals from CadoMotus' Belgian men, Belgian speedskating has ascended the European ladder from 4th in 2008 with 9 gold/19 medals to 2nd in 2009 with 13 gold/32 medals...

While Italy (29 gold/83 medals in 2008, 36/71 in 2009) retained the overall nations title, the rise of the Belgian team to second has displaced Germany (17 gold/30 medals in 2008, 10/35 in 2009) from 2nd to 3rd. France, meanwhile (with 12 gold/34 medals in 2008, 3/23 in 2009 'sans Yann') has fallen from 3rd to 5th overall, while the Dutch managed to move up from 6th (0/18) in 2008 to 4th (4/23) in 2009 thanks to the efforts of their Junior Girls & Boys.

Two big contributors to the Belgian success
Bart Swings & Ferre Spruyt
Gold & Silver in the Mens Marathon
Image courtesy: euro-inline2009.be

CadoMotus' team members took 12 individual and 4 relay medals during the championship. Elma de Vries was strong throughout the competition adding 3 silver & 1 bronze medal to the Dutch table, as well as being part of silver- & bronze-medal winning relay teams. CadoMotus' brothers Ronald & Michel Mulder also claimed a silver medal each, Ronald in the track 500m and Michel in the road 500m, with Ronald also among the 5 men to go under the track 300m WR.

Michel Mulder goes head-to-head with Thomas Boucher in the 500m final where Mulder took silver
Image: TimsProSkateShots

Elma de Vries with Mariska Huisman in the Elimination, where she took the silver
Image: TimsProSkateShots

A twisty and somewhat containing road course greeted the EK competitors after the track, and they didn't have to go far - with the road being quite literally the street outside the Zandvoorde track venue. Made up of four quite square corners connecting residential streets, the course funneled the group into a single-file peloton in distance events, with confident lead-outs and bursts of speed through corners often being the deciding factor in races, and blocking the hard-fought and narrow raceline an easy thing to do.

Jore van den Bergh
Gold for Belgium in the Junior Relay
Image courtesy: euro-inline2009.be

Bart Swings anchors home the road relay for Belgium ahead of Italy & France
Image courtesy: euro-inline2009.be

The MPC Black Track and Road War wheels that powered Hebbrecht (BEL), Peruzzo (ITA), Melis (ITA), Swings (BEL) and others to the podium on the fast Zandvoorde track, came out again on the road as they made the way onto the skates of more French & Italian skaters on the road as others like Van den Berghe (BEL), Garderes & Boucher (FRA) found success on the fast new MPC wheels as more eyes fell onto the bright red/blue and white combinations being worn by the Belgian CadoMotus men.

The Road War put another competition on its resume, proving its performance and versatility and winning on the track and the road at Euro 09.

Elma de Vries leads the road points race, she added a bronze to total 4 individual medals
Image courtesy: euro-inline2009.be

Wouter Hebbrecht made it 2 from 2, winning the 200m Time Trial
Image courtesy: euro-inline2009.be

Matteo Melis won the elimination (above) and took silver in the points
Image courtesy: euro-inline2009.be

Swings capped off a tremendous European Championship with the win in the Mens Marathon over Francolini, teammate Ferre Spruyt, and Alexis Contin
Image courtesy: TimsProSkateShots

Links:

STORY: EK Track Wrap (EN)
ANALYSIS: Jelle Spruyt - Coach's EK recap (NL)
VIDEOS: All EK racing, in HD
PHOTOS: TimsProSkateShots - EK 2009 up close
PHOTOS: Official pictures from all events