PREVIEW & PREDICTION: Out to beat the prediction!
(Article by PodiumCafe.com)
Prijs Stad Roeselare, Sunday 24th April, Belgium, UCI 1.1
From southwest Netherlands to West Flanders, and the biggest race of the weekend, in terms of UCI points. Prijs Stad Roeselare seems to have a very similar startlist to Borsele, only with Ina-Yoko Teutenberg for HTC and Annemiek van Vleuten for Nederland Bloeit…. I’m not sure how accurate this is, given that Teute isn’t racing Borsele – but Horizon Fitness will definitely be there, starring Café correspondent Nancy Arreola
Like Borsele, there are races for u23 women and men, as well as the elite women. The women’s race is 135km long, made up of 1 big loop of 118km, and 2 laps of an 8.6km circuit in Roeseleare. It’s the same course at the u23 men’s race (they do more laps of the circuit) and while it’s hillier than Borsele (the Monteberg is 800m, av. 7%, max 13%; the Kemmelberg is 400m, ave. 4%, max 22%, and the Helling Geluveld is 600m, av 2%, max 7%), there are then 50 flat kilometres to the end… my prediction is that it’ll come down to a sprint between Teutenberg and Wild, with Gilmore taking third spot on the podium… unless Vos has decided to race this one too. Wild has won the race for the last two years, so she knows what it takes…