Van Den Broeck wins Belgian time trial title

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Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto-Soudal) won the Belgian Elite Men time trial championships in Postel, on Friday afternoon. The former Junior Men time trial World Champion from 2001 won the 49km race well ahead of young Yves Lampaert (Etixx-QuickStep) and defending champion Kristof Vandewalle (Trek). It’s only the second professional victory for Van den Broeck after a stage win in the Dauphiné Liberé in 2011. Last year Vandewalle grabbed his third consecutive TT title.

The Belgian time trial championships were held in Postel, a suburb near Mol, famous for its abbey beer and cheese. The course featured some false flat sections. Originally race organizer Wilfried Peeters planned the course to cross the Belgian-Netherlands border but that turned out to be impossible. For the first time the TT championships are held in the same week of the road championships. That convinced 23 riders to have a go at the title, including Tom Boonen who origins from Mol. He failed to crack the podium on home soil.

Riders were organized in two groups and Yves Lampaert and Thomas De Gendt were the best riders in the first group. During the first quarter over the course they kept each other in check but from there Lampaert blasted away to finish in 59:14.96.

After a break of fifty minutes the second group of riders got under way, starting at two minutes from each other. Guillaume Van Keirsbulck was the second rider in this group and he opened just under the time from teammate Lampaert. The next rider was Jurgen Van den Broeck and he knocked off 19 more seconds from this time. Stijn Devolder (Trek), Victor Campenaerts (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) and Vandewalle were all following at short distance.

At the finish line Van Keirsbulck was chased down by Van den Broeck. The Tour de France absentee proved to 42 seconds faster than Lampaert, finishing in 58:32.33. Devolder and Campenaerts faded after their fast start, both finishing well behind Lampaert at the finish line. Vandewalle managed third place at 1:07 from winner Van den Broeck, pushing Stijn Devolder off the podium.

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