The 3rd day at the Para-cycling World Cup in Ostend was a success with 4 medals. Jonas Van de Steene (MH4), Jean-Francois Deberg (MH3) & Maxime Hordies (MH1) take gold. World Champion Tim Celen (MT2) takes silver. So Belgium has 9 medals. With 5 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze. Discover here how all Belgians perform.
Saturday: 3 times gold for hand bikers Jonas Van de Steene (MH4), Jean-François Deberg (MH3) and Maxime Hordies (MH1) in the road race, Tim Celen (MT2) sprinted to silver.
Paralympic Team Belgium was able to score again at the Para-cycling World Cup in Ostend.
Hand bikers Jonas Van de Steene (MH4), Jean-François Deberg (MH3) and Maxime Hordies (MH1) won gold in the road race, Tim Celen (MT2) sprinted to silver.
Our top riders brought the medal counter to nine in no time. The day started nicely on the Oostendse Zeedijk and we are not talking about the radiant sun and the accompanying nice breeze.
In the MH2 category, Christophe Hindricq was seventh, Laurence VandeVyver was eighth in the WH3 competition.
In the MH4 competition, Mehdi Oueslati was 23rd. Steve Keppens had to leave the game early.
In the MH3 competition, Staf Mertens finished 31st, Christophe Van Looy 32nd, Arnaud Perlaux 29th and Jérôme Wouters 34th.
Friday: Three extra Belgian medals, with gold for Vromant
Vromant, tandem Thomas-Goeman and Clincke add three medals to the Belgian counter.
Under an Ostend sun, first Ewoud Vromant (gold), then the tandem Milan Thomas-Jonas Goeman (bronze) and finally Louis Clincke (bronze) took three new Paralympic Team Belgium medals on the second day of the time trials. The counter now stands at five for Paralympic Team Belgium.
The first Belgians to take action on the second day of the World Cup in Ostend were Thibaud Thomanne, and a few moments later also Ewoud Vromant, in the time trial for riders of the MC2 class.
He was eager to start his season and he did so with flying colors: Ewoud Vromant took gold with the best time 26’45″402 with an average of 45.75 km/h he drove like a racing car over the Ostend course.
His competitor, Frenchman Alexandre Léauté had to settle for silver, Briton Matthew Robertson completed the podium. Thibaud Thomanne was fifteenth.
In the women’s category, Nancy Gilliams finished ninth in the WC2 category.
The men’s tandems opened the afternoon sessions. Belgium is represented by Milan Thomas and his driver Jonas Goeman (MB), and both gentlemen performed excellently. They rode to third place and thus achieved their first podium spot at a UCI World Cup race.
The competition was won by European champions Bangma-Bos (NED), followed by vice-Paralympic champions Ter Schure-Fransen (NED).
Diederick Ampe (16th), Niels Verschaeren (17th) and Ken . rode in the C5 class
De Feyter (19th) a great time trial along the Zeedijk.
Louis Clincke was strong in the MC4 time trial: he came third, a very handsome one
achievement after a long period of setbacks.
In the MC3 competition for men, Raphaël Legros and Jan Vissers finished 20th and 22nd respectively.
Griet Hoet and her pilot Anneleen Monsieur (WB) were the last riders to start on this second day of competition in Ostend. The tandem was eager to extend last year’s title, but both stranded 10 seconds from the podium.
Thursday: Gold for Hordies, silver for Celen
At the Para-cycling World Cup in Ostend, Tim Celen (MT2) was the first
Belgian who came into action in the time trial.
After battling for 20 kilometers, Celen – third in this number at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games – came in second in a time of 0:33:41.309.
The victory went to the American Dennis Connors (USA). The bronze medal went to the German Maximilian Jager.
With Celen’s silver, the first medal has been won for Paralympic Team Belgium.
Several Belgians came into action in the afternoon session. Jonas Van de Steene rode to an impressive fourth place in the MH4 category for handbikers.
First place went to Geert Schipper (NED). In the same class, Steve Keppens finished in 26th place, Mehdi Oueslati in 27th.
In the MH3 class, Jean-François Deberg finished twelfth, Staf Mertens, Christophe Van Looy and Jérome Wouters were 38th, 39th and 41st respectively.
In the WH3 class Laurence VandeVyver rode to eighth place, the victory went to the German Annika Zeyen. And in the MH2 class Christophe Hindricq was good for a 7th place.
For the best result, we had to wait for the last athlete: hand biker Maxime Hordies won in the MH1 category. He took the gold medal ahead of his rival and world champion Fabrizio Cornegliani.
A nice end to a first successful day for Paralympic Team Belgium at the Para-cycling World Cup in Ostend with already 2 medals on the counter.
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Joyful scenes at the Van de Steene family.
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Earlier today Jonas Van de Steene in the attack.
