The Netherlands gloriously wins the Sidecarcross of Nations 2018!
Today, Team Netherlands managed to win the sidecar cross of nations in a grand manner in Slagelse-Denmarken. With the highest possible score, the combinations Bax/Stupelis, Hermans/Musset and Willemsen/Bax defended the national interest with cum laude. Team France surprisingly finished second in the loose sand of Denmark, ahead of Latvia, which would finish third. For the Belgian team, top favorites for the final victory alongside the Netherlands, there was only 11th place in the daily total. After a very serious crash in the warm-up, Team Dierckens was unable to participate in the actual competitions, meaning that the 'Red Stallions' had no chance of a good ranking in advance.
Despite all the teams' performances in the races, the story of the day was the crash of Arne Dierckens and Luc Rostingt in the warm-up. Exactly while jumping from a table mountain, the throttle stuck and the combination representing team Belgium flew way too high and way too far over the table mountain and landed with a sickening thud on the Danish sand, leaving its two riders behind like rag dolls. Fortunately, after a good check-up in the hospital, it turned out that no serious injuries were sustained from the terrifying crash, but unfortunately participation for team Belgium was no longer an option. As a result, Belgium had no chance of a good ranking and unknowingly laid out the red carpet for the other favorite, the reigning national champion team the Netherlands.
Heat 1
The Dutch immediately showed in the first strength measurement what the plans were for today. The first heat was a total victory for team Netherlands. Bax/Stupelis finished first and Willemsen/Bax crossed the line in second. Surprising front starter Gorbenko from Latvia eventually finished third after being closely followed by Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart. The world champions briefly took over the lead until they made a rare mistake and got stuck at the exit of a bend. This allowed Gorbenko to regain the lead and Vanluchene would eventually fall back to fifth place because in the heat of the battle he had come into contact with other sidecars with both his hand and his foot.
The Dutch Armada stormed carefree and quickly to second and third to keep a close eye on team Gorbenko in first place. Both team Bax and team Willemsen managed to outwit Gorbenko and thus scored the best possible result for team Netherlands with 1st and 2nd place at the finish. The Latvian Gorbenko then took third place and with his other teammate, Rupeiks finishing in 10th place, Latvia simply did well in this heat. Willkinson/Chamberlain took fourth place but had to watch passively as the other English team of Jake Brown and Zac Snell spent a long time in the pits. Ultimately, they were one of the last to arrive and would even be disqualified after the race because they had received help outside the pits.
Vanluchene finished fifth behind Wilkinson in pain, knowing that without team Dierckens they could not compete for the prizes with team Belgium. The Italians Pozzi/Walti came in sixth and even caught up with the excited Vanluchene. Unfortunately for Pozzi, the other Italian duo, the Lasagna brothers, were only classified 18th. Team France did better with the worst line-up on paper without Giraud. Thomas/Van der Putten came in seventh and the other Frenchmen, Bouqet/Chopin, managed to finish ninth.
Heat 2
In the second heat there was the holeshot for Giraud/Badaire on behalf of France with Hermans/Musset immediately in pursuit. Hermans managed to pass Giraud quite quickly on the increasingly difficult sand circuit in Denmark. Hermans then showed that the Dutch are sand specialists. He quickly pulled away from the pursuers to win the second heat of the day by a large margin.
Giraud rode in second place for a long time, but the British Wilkinson then came storming in after breaking away after an intense battle with Willemsen, Sanders and the Latvian Daiders, among others. Giraud could do nothing but watch as Wilkinson stole second place from him after a great race and thus finished. Giraud/Badaire took third place at the finish. Behind the top three, veterans Daiders/Daiders for Latvia came in fourth after quite a battle, with Sanders finishing fifth and Willemsen/Bax sixth at the finish. The Italian Pozzi now finished seventh, with the Irishman Molds at eight, the Czech Kolencik at nine and the top ten was closed by the Rupeiks who, together with Daiders, did well for Latvia in fourth place for the standings. The other teams from France and England were also in battle for eleventh place. That seemed to be won by the French Bouqet/Chopin until they had to drop out in the final phase and were only classified in 22nd place. Kinge/Millard finished 11th and England only scored 13 penalties in this heat.
Heat 3
The third heat would already be a piece of cake for the Netherlands team to be crowned champions. In fact, only two machine failures and a magical score from one of the teams fighting for second place could have dethroned the Dutch.
Latvia, France and Great Britain were on course for the remaining podium spots. The third heat would be the deciding factor.
France immediately took the lead with Thomas/Van der Putten taking the holeshot, followed by Hermans/Musset and Sanders/Haller. Hermans then quickly passed Thomas and he in turn got stuck behind Hermans with Sanders on the rope. In the meantime, the other Belgian team, World Champions Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart, was already out of the battle with machine trouble. An undignified farewell for the new World Champion who probably imagined this day differently after yesterday's superior qualifications.
Hermans slowly walked away from Thomas in the second half of the heat, who then got stuck on a straggler in one of the deep ruts in the heavy sand, allowing Sanders to take over second place.
In the meantime, team Bax/Stupelis was busy catching up in an extra-caliber race. They were only 20th at the start, but made their way nicely to the front on the broken circuit in Denmark. In the end, even second man Sanders had to give in to Bax's urge to act and team Netherlands scored a 1 - 2, just like in the first heat, with Hermans/Musset as winners and Bax/Stupelis as second.
Sanders then finished third with Giraud/Badaire out of four, who had easily passed the other French team Thomas/Van der Putten in the final phase. Because the French managed to take fourth and fifth place in this heat, they ultimately finished second in the day's results, a street length behind winner the Netherlands. The Latvians then took third place in the nations cross of sidecars by once again scoring solid results with Gorbenko finishing sixth and Daiders finishing twelfth.
Unfortunately, Team Great Britain could not impress. Without team Wilkinson/Chamberlain, who had shown themselves strongly with a second and fourth place in the earlier heats, Great Britain turned out to be too small for the other competition. With only a tenth place for Kinge/Millard and a sixteenth place for Brown/Snell, they had to watch passively as the podium just passed the islanders.
The Netherlands thus extended their title with the best result, just like last year; with Willemsen's sixth place as the worst result, this was then deleted, leaving three first and two second places. And even if Willemsen/Bax's sixth place were taken into account, the Netherlands would still be the decided champion!
France now turned out to be the vice champion again, just like in 2017, and that was rarely seen on a surface that many sidecar crossing Frenchmen hate. Also smiling faces at Latvia, where no less than half of the team consisted of 're-enters', but not the least. After all, riders Rupeiks and Daiders once controlled the top spots in the World Championship and baking player Liepnins, employed by rider Rupeiks, was even once World Champion together with the Belgian Joris Hendrickx.
For the Belgian Red Stallions it was a day to quickly forget. After the good dress rehearsal on Saturday, a bad day of competition followed, which was lost before the starting gate could fall due to Dierckens' cancellation after the serious crash in the warm-up. He and the other teams from Belgium are probably already looking forward to the 2019 edition. After all, they wanted to dethrone 'the Ollanders' and all the ingredients were there, but instead they ended up disconsolately second to last.
Total results Sidecarcross of nations, Slagelse(DK)
PL. Nation Points
01.Netherlands 7
02. France 28
03. Latvia 33
04. Great Britain 43
05. Czech Republic 51
06. Germany 64
07. Switzerland 71
08. Ireland 77
09. Austria 78
10.Denmark 91
11. Belgium 36+DNS
12. Italy 45+DNS
Text: Emil Bilars
Photo: Luc Vanderaa
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