>The CadoMotus Ladies World and National Teams were everywhere this weekend. The biggest race weekend for the ladies in the calendar so far, the World Inline Cup staged a 2-day event in Weinfelden (Switzerland) with the new 'T-Track' relay event and a Marathon, the France Inline Cup went to Dijon for one of its largest events, and the Netherlands World on Wheels had a double-header weekend in Groningen Saturday and Almere Sunday.
It is hard to have athletes in two places at once, and weekends like this one (particularly with the European Championships fast approaching) need to be considered and planned carefully to get the best possible results for the skaters while not physically exhausting them to the extent that they spend 2 weeks recovering from such a bout of racing and travel. A true 'team' of athletes, coach and management are needed when the schedule gets tough... together with a lot of kilometers in the car!
Quite a weekend
The World Team would travel Thursday to Weinfelden, spending Friday familiarizing themselves with the track (to be the site of the 2009 World Championships) for the Friday night relay event, and driving over the Marathon course for Saturday's race. Meanwhile Jannitta would make her way to Switzerland in time for the Saturday Marathon. Saturday night after the Marathon, Hilde & Angeline would return to the Netherlands for Sunday's World on Wheels race in Almere, while Jannitta would travel to Dijon to join with Jessica, Sabrina and Margo (CadoMotus National) to race in the Dijon Marathon.
Weinfelden WIC T-Track Relay (Switzerland, Friday)
Sitting in 2nd for most of their relay heat (with the teams from Athleticum, World inline center, Schankel, Alessi national, and Zepto), the girls looked assured of a place in the final until the 3rd last tag when Hilde crashed in change area. A big gap formed, and the girls chased hard to catch 4th place, but crossed the line in 5th. Fortunately, 1x wildcard entry was available into the final, and the CadoMotus Ladies were given the place as the only team crashing in the heats.
In the final (Sportvital RB, SsangYong, Zepto, World inline center, Alessi world, CadoMotus World, and Athleticum RB) all teams were close together and the pace was very high on the grippy Weinfelden track. With a crowded change area populated by 7 teams, there were a lot of bad tags and the CadoMotus girls found themselves always tagging in heavy traffic making exiting the tag area difficult.
In the final tag the girls were in 6th and could not get enough space to make a clean push tag, Thomas passed the Alessi skater in the 2nd last corner and held on to 5th place in the final.
Relay Final Results
1. Sportvital RB (Tamara Llorens, Laura Lardani, Catherine Penan)
2. SsangYong (Andrea Gonzales, Nicole Begg, Tina Struver)
3. World Inline Center (Nachi Shinozuka, Melissa Bonnet, Natalia Artero)
5. CadoMotus World Ladies (Angeline Thomas, Hilde Goovaerts, Bianca Roosenboom)
Weinfelden WIC Marathon (Switzerland, Saturday)
The following morning, the marathon course was 2x laps of 21 kms in the hills around Weinfelden. After the first hill the lead group dropped more than half of the ladies field and left the front of the race with just 10 girls. As they made their way into the 2nd of 2 laps, the balance of the field caught up to the leaders, being lead by a train of skaters from the mens race (who in a strange decision were started AFTER the Women on the 2x21km lap course).
There was a lot of attacking on the hills of the tough course, and in the final 6 kilometers, Elma de Vries briefly broke away alone from the group but was caught with just 1 or 2 kilometers remaining. The CadoMotus girls then had to try to make a good position before the inevitable field sprint. Hilde, leading out, became tangled in other skaters, losing speed for the team who had to again try to work their way to the front to position themselves for the finish. Caught behind a slow train in the finish, Jannitta moved out and lead Angeline back to the head of the field - to which a gap of 10 meters had opened.
Angeline began sprinting early to try getting to the front of the field, but found herself racing the long Alessi train (made up of 2 teams of Alessi skaters) who initiated a sprint from 700 meters out from the finish, and put Giovanna Tchurcharelli and Sandra Gomez on the podium.
Ladies Marathon Results
1. Laura Lardani, ITA (Sportvital RB)
2. Giovanna Tchurcharelli, ITA (Alessi PS World)
3. Sandra Gomez, ESP (Alessi PS World)
11. Angeline Thomas, AUS (CadoMotus World Ladies)
21. Hilde Goovaerts, BEL (CadoMotus World Ladies)
22. Jannitta Spigt, NED (CadoMotus World Ladies)
Almere World on Wheels Criterium (Netherlands, Sunday)
Almere was a tough race for Angeline and Hilde, who had been driving from Weinfelden all night after 2 days of racing and arrived home at 5am. There were a lot of attacks on the fast 750 meter course on a very hot afternoon, with team TimeOut making numerous attacks that were countered quickly most times by Angeline Thomas and Elma de Vries (DSB).
With 15min remaining in the criterium there was a breakaway of de Vries, Thomas, Anniek ter Haar (TimeOut) and Maaike Polspoel (TimeOut) - that remained ahead of the field for the race. The pace was kept on until the finish thanks to 1-2 efforts from the TimeOut girls designed to get them clear of Thomas and de Vries. The finish ended in a sprint between the four girls, and in the final lap (lead out by Anniek ter Haar and Maaike Polspoel) Elma and Angeline jumped to the lead simultaneously, with de Vries winning the corner and holding the lead to the finish line - with de Vries taking the win from Thomas, Polspoel and ter Haar. Hilde Goovaerts won the field sprint for 5th place after a tough weekend that began with a Friday-night crash in the T-Track event in Switzerland.
Dames A Results
1. Elma de Vries, NED (DSB)
2. Angeline Thomas, AUS (CadoMotus World Ladies)
3. Maaike Polspoel, BEL (TimeOut)
Dijon FIC Marathon (France, Sunday)
Ladies Marathon Results
1. Nicole Begg, NZL (SsangYong)
2. Tamara Llorens, ARG (Sportvital RB)
3. Nachi Shinozuka, JAP (World Inline Center)
9. Jannitta Spigt, NED (CadoMotus World Ladies)
10. Margo van de Merwe, NED (CadoMotus National)
11. Jessica Gaudesaboos, BEL (CadoMotus National)
