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For more details, please review our Privacy Policy 1970s F1 star and winner of the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix for McLaren Mass enjoyed a long sportscar career during and after his F1 stint (which spanned 1973-1982) and was an early mentor of Michael Schumacher when they raced together at the Sauber-Mercedes team in the late-80s Mass partnered Stanley Dickens and Manuel Reuter in winning the 1989 Le Mans 24 Hours for the team he had made his F1 debut at the 1973 British Grand Prix a partnership which continued into 1974 until he was picked up by McLaren for the last race of the season in preparation for his position at the team in 1975 as the retiring Denny Hulme’s replacement He achieved some promising results there as number 2 to Emerson Fittipaldi including what would be the only Grand Prix victory of his career at the tragic race in Montjuich - which was called short of half-distance after Rolf Stommelen’s car crashed into the crowd Mass was leading at the time the race was stopped and was declared the winner he admitted finding things difficult when the extrovert James Hunt arrived at the team in 1976 as Fittipaldi’s replacement Mass was nonetheless dominating the German Grand Prix at the 14-mile Nurburgring - having made a brave gamble to start on slick tyres – when the race was stopped for Niki Lauda’s fiery accident He was following close in the wheel tracks of Hunt in the Fuji title-decider when he aquaplaned out of second When driving slowly to the pits during qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder his car was struck by a flat-out Gilles Villeneuve the Ferrari driver being killed after being ejected from the car It lost Mass any appetite he'd held for F1 - and he left at the end of the season demonstrated to spectacular effect when he appeared on the multi-discipline Superstars competition against other athletes with a heavy ball thrown from a sitting position and the gym floor marked out in distances Mass’ ball didn’t even touch the floor - but hit the opposite wall Please accept marketing cookies to enable YouTube videos The second round of the 2024 FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Global Championship Series had a much different feel than the first doubleheader two weeks ago the global warriors were tasked with racing at Circuit Zolder and Algarve International Circuit the tracks were announced 24 hours in advance Great Britain’s Luke McKeown and the Czech Republic’s Martin Kadlečík split the victories both leading the most laps after pulling away from the competition in comparison to the first two races at Mugello and Okayama which saw late race passes by the eventual winner McKeown started from the pole position at Zolder and led the entire way pulling away early as the scrap was on for second but early contact moved him down the order this time Chile’s Nicolás Rubilar started in second Spain’s Aaron Vazquezz was in the runner-up spot both chasing down McKeown and defending against Rubilar behind ” I didn’t have too much pressure from the start and I’m sure it’s going to be a bit different in the next one (at Algarve).” Chile’s Felipe Cabrera took the pole position pulling out to nearly a five-second lead by the end of the 20-minute sprint Cabrera found himself in a three-wide battle with Rubilar and Australia’s Hugh Barter Cabrera couldn’t escape without contact and fell down the order after spinning from third Vazquezz and Barter found themselves in a battle for the podium spots with McKeown and Spain’s Alejandro Sánchez scoring seventh behind Great Britain’s Graham Carroll “I didn’t expect that,” said Kadlečík post-race but I’m glad I managed to keep my concentration and finish first FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Global Championship Series – Race #3 results from Zolder were as follows: FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Global Championship Series – Race #4 results from Algarve were as follows: FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Global Championship Series points through Round 2 are as follows: Dunne maintains the points lead at the halfway point of the season but McKeown has closed the gap to 10 points leaving Algarve while Vazquezz jumps up to third following his double podium With a fifth at Zolder and the victory at Portimão and sits within a race of the lead with half the season still remaining The next two tracks will be unveiled before the fifth and sixth race of the season Every round of the 2024 FIA SIMAGIC F4 eSports Global Championship will be broadcasted on all of iRacing’s official channels Coverage starts at 3:00 pm ET / 19:00 GMT / 05:00 AEST Stay In Touch These cookies gather data on how visitors use this website – which pages are visited most often We use analytics to determine how users use our website and look for opportunities within these datasets to improve our site design These cookies remember website preferences and generally improve the performance of the site for the user This is an internally generated cookie that we use to hide our SMS form if our users have signed up or indicated they are not interested receiving SMS notifications It is there to improve your site experience by saving your preferences These cookies are used to provide a customized experience and can be used to provide targeted ads through advertising networks We use this pixel to run digital marketing campaigns across other websites This basically just lets us know you are interested in iRacing We use this cookie to see what our users do after they click on an ad This helps us understand how effective our marketing campaigns are in leading to product purchases This is the code that allows HubSpot to track your activity We use cookies to improve your site experience Kenis and De Keersmaecker enter 24H of Zolder in all female line upRACERSAug 9 20242 min readAn all-female line up featuring Beitske Visser will compete in the 24 Hours of Zolder with G&A Motors x JDK Motorsport Team aiming for success in the TA class with their BMW M2 CS Photo: JDK x G&A RacingAn all-female team is ready to tackle the upcoming 24 Hours of Zolder as Dutch racers Beitske Visser and Sandra Van Der Sloot join Julie Kenis and Juna-Jane De Keersmaecker at JDK x G&A Racing The Belgian endurance race is the flagship event of the Belcar Series and will feature over 40 cars across classes and touring car line-ups battling around the clock at the 4.010 km circuit that hosted the Belgian F1 Grand Prix on ten occasions between the 70s and the 80s G&A Motors x JDK Motorsport Team regular drivers Julie Kenis and Juna-Jane De Keersmaecker are currently fourth in the TA class of the Belcar championship in their second full-season entry in the series the two Belgian racers won the Ladies Trophy award at the end of the season This year they are consistently improving their personal bests at every round They are joined by two high-profile drivers With her experience in both single-seaters and sportscars Visser has contested top international championships such as the GP3 Series (now known as FIA F3) and Formula Renault 3.5 She competed in both GT4 and GT3 and was then selected for the inaugural W Series season in 2019 she collected a total of 7 podiums and 2 race wins and was twice vice-champion Visser made her endurance debut in LMP2 machinery and raced in ELMS and WEC over two seasons contesting two editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans - claiming a top-10 in class on debut she has raced at the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring reaching the class podium twice in 2023 and 2024 More valuable experience will also come from Sandra Van Der Sloot a motorsport veteran with over two decades in touring cars and GT racing all over Europe Van Der Sloot has previously raced in several 24H Series events and will bring plenty of experience in long-distance races to the team - as well as knowledge of the BMW M2 CS Racing machine as she has competed and won races in the BMW M2 Cup Benelux series in the last couple of years Van Der Sloot has raced in the uber-competitive ADAC GT4 Germany and DTM Trophy she is contesting her first season of Italian GT Having joined Enrico Fulgenzi Racing aboard the Porsche 992 GT3 Cup Sandra is currently leading the GT Cup AM standings after two race victories out of the first two Endurance rounds at Vallelunga and Mugello G&A Motors x JDK Motorsport Team is therefore aiming to run at the front of a highly-competitive TA class at the 24 Hours of Zolder Or you simply want to stay up-to-date with their results Privacy Policy Another podium at Zolder kept Liam in 2nd place in the DTM championship and took his tally to 4 podiums from the first 6 races A poor qualifying for the first race at Zolder became a non-finish on the first lap when Liam was taken out of the race by an out of control car on the opening lap A P6 for Race 2 ended up as another podium position A lightning start moved the Red Bull Ferrari up a spot on the opening lap and then Liam made up another position after a restart from behind the Safety car a few laps later Liam took the chequered flag in 4th but Lucas Auer received a 5-seconds penalty for a pitstop infringement and that moved Liam up to the podium Get the latest Liam Lawson videos and images free for editorial use from Red Bull Content Pool © 2025 Liam Lawson. All rights reserved. Website by CategoriesCategoriesEnglishSPORTS, INNOVATION18 European solar car teams compete at Circuit Zolder21 September 2024 The start signal for the eighth edition of the iLumen European Solar Challenge was given at the Circuit Zolder in Limburg on Saturday A total of 18 European solar car teams are competing to drive as far as possible in 24 hours “The purpose of this race is to show people that technology such as solar energy and electric driving has huge potential and we do this by having students from all over the world build a car that has to cover the longest distance in 24 hours while being powered solely by solar energy,” said iLumen CEO and organiser Ismaël Ben-Al-Lal Participating teams can reach speeds of up to 170 km/hr with their cars but must be mindful of having enough energy for the whole night so the average speed will be between 70 and 80 km/hr The cars are allowed to stop twice to recharge their batteries The participants are expected to cover between 1,500 and 1,700 km in 24 hours #FlandersNewsService | Teams from various countries participate in the iLumen European Solar Challenge at Circuit Zolder 21 September 2024 © PHOTO WIKTOR DABKOWSKI / ZUMA PRESS WIRE Copy linkGet updates in your mailboxYour email addressSubscribeBy clicking "Subscribe" I confirm I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy rapid and high-quality information 24 hours a day from Belgium and abroad to all Belgian media not to mention entertainment and lifestyle our journalists and press photographers produce hundreds of photos and news stories Since the end of March 2022 English has been added as a language businesses and various organisations that need reliable information Belga News Agency also offers a comprehensive range of corporate services to meet all their communication needs www.belganewsagency.eu iRacing has released a video for the 2024 Season 4 showcasing the completely updated Circuit Zolder This iconic track has been transformed with brand new models using the latest techniques to ensure it meets the current quality standards of the game The new version of Circuit Zolder includes two track configurations: the Grand Prix layout and the Alternate layout This 2024 update completely replaces the previous version of Circuit Zolder meaning players don’t need to take any extra steps to enjoy the new design Even existing replay files will work seamlessly with this updated version This website uses affiliate links which may earn a commission at no additional cost to you This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Silver went to 2020 Belgian National Champion Laurens Sweeck, unable to resist Nys' surging move on the sixth lap of seven and crossing the line nine seconds back, with Toon Aerts coming home third 11 seconds adrift and thick mud and featuring a dangerously greasy downhill bend nicknamed the 'corner of death' the tensely fought race saw no rider able to gain the upper hand until Nys made his definitive charge for glory The son of longstanding cyclocross great Sven Nys the 22-year-old Thibau only opened up a margin of a handful of seconds by the finish But despite looking back repeatedly as he closed to the line the gap was enough to ensure the Baloise-Trek Lions rider could clinch his first national 'cross title at professional level and the tenth gold cyclo-cross medal in his family's history. “I tested my legs early in the race and felt good,” Nys said afterwards "then I really went for it when the rest were on the limit but if you have the European and Belgian champion's jerseys you want to have more wins as well - to make those jerseys shine even more." Dry weather rendered the very muddy and snowy course a little less risky but some crashes on the first lap as the race slowly fired into life nonetheless encouraged a cautious start for one of the mostly keenly anticipated national cyclocross titles this Sunday a group of five riders had tentatively moved towards the front including most of the main protagonists of the day: Nys 2023 Belgian champion Michael Vanthourenhout only 20 seconds separated the first 20 riders by the end of lap one so in stark contrast to the elite women's race where Marion Norbert Riberolle was clearly superior to the rest nobody seemed able to get an early advantage Aerts was on the front of the group as they clattered up and over the mid-lap bridge for a second time while Nys led the front group of five riders across the line at the end of lap two with a narrow advantage and even he warmed up notably later and bridged across the leading break Living up to his status of pre-race favourite Sweeck began to take more and more turns on the front although with riders as concerned with staying upright as opening gaps the notable lack of outright attacks stretched deep into the third lap the general attrition rate on such tough terrain was such it allowed Nys Verstrynge and Vanthourenhout to eke out a double-digit advantage on their closest chasers. Could this be the defining break of the race Iserbyt and Joran Wyseure made a major effort to get across - for which they both paid the price later - as Nys tested the water with vicious little digs on the climbs and Sweeck put in yet more of his trademark sustained accelerations on the flatter segments Yet by the half way point of the seven-lap beyond Iserbyt finally dropping off the radar for good nothing was really decided and with six riders ahead as Sweeck piled on even more pressure on the most waterlogged often remaining seated on some of the most difficult little ascents to maintain his momentum and distance his rivals It was a strategy which paid dividends given only Aerts could follow and as the leading duo turned their heads in the finishing straight to check the distance on their rivals their gap was already up to nearly ten seconds But despite his gloomy headshakes - as if throwing in the towel - Nys did manage to close the gap again with Vanthourenhout and Vandeputte a little further back Nys timed his move perfectly to dive through the inside into the lead Sweeck faded slightly and Vanthourenhout crashed on an ultra-treacherous downhill and Nys suddenly found himself leading solo - and leading well with Vandeputte a further four behind and to judge by the way Nys blasted up the final climbs as if he was just starting the race it was clear he had a lot of energy left in the tank Vandeputte faded but still managed to hang on for fourth but by that point and after such a long period where nobody could get the upper hand Nys victory was definitively in the bag and the podium finishers alongside him were all but decided as well "I quickly realised that I had the legs to move up and get past my rivals "I also tested my legs with a little attack and I realized that I could gap the rest when I wanted to it was just a question of finding the right moment to drop them.” Results powered by FirstCycling The Circuit Zolder race track in Heusden-Zolder is hosting the Historic Grand Prix this weekend Vintage car enthusiasts can marvel at iconic and exclusive racing cars on Saturday and Sunday The Historic Grand Prix brings five series to the tarmac with iconic cars spanning several decades of racing history for which nearly 200 drivers have registered visitors will be treated to a unique array of cars from the 1970s and 1980s The GT Cup and Touring Car Trophy feature touring cars and GTs with an engine size of up to 3.6 litres historic racing cars of various makes and ages will be on display the Concours d'élégance is on the programme the event presents some 50 remarkable classic cars These include all generations of the Ford Mustang as well as some striking models of the Volkswagen Golf the Aston Martina DBR 22 and the Porsche 918 The last visit of the Formula 1 circus to Circuit Zolder was exactly forty years ago the Arrows A8 of Belgian former racing driver Thierry Boutsen will be on the race track Ford Mustang and Volkswagen Golf will be celebrated in separate classes There is also an additional class for ‘modern classic’ sports cars More info and tickets are available at www.circuit-zolder.be/event/historic-grand-prix #FlandersNewsService | A vintage racing car on a race track in Germany in 2011 © BELGA PHOTO IMAGEBROKER Dutch rider beats Bräutigam and Dubcova in sprint finish Results powered by FirstCycling Stephen FarrandSocial Links NavigationHead of NewsStephen is one of the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team having reported on professional cycling since 1994 He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022 before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters Zolder will always be remembered as the circuit at which Gilles Villeneuve was fatally injured during qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix A memorial stands above the pits as a constant reminder Even before 1982 it was an unloved venue – narrow Originally opened in 1963 in the Flemish part of Belgium it first held the Belgian GP ten years later when the race almost did not go ahead due to the recently relayed tarmac braking up by which time the shortened Spa-Francorchamps retook sole custody of the event Two incidents marred the 1981 race weekend Osella mechanic Giovanni Amadeo was killed when hit by a slow-moving car in the narrow pitlane The race began with Arrows’ Dave Luckett still on the grid trying to restart Riccardo Patrese’s car and he was injured when hit by the sister machine of Siegfried Stohr adding another chicane at the point where Villeneuve crashed Champ Car World Series and German DTM all visited as Zolder remained an important international venue It also held the Formula 3 Masters in 2007 and 2008 when noise restrictions caused it to move from Zandvoort A 24-hour race for national touring cars was introduced in 1983 and has developed into an annual highlight First corner and chicane behind the pits reprofiled Max Verstappen’s participation in a charity sim racing event saw the Dutch driver fall foul of a practical joke by an F1 fan Verstappen was taking part in a 23-hour endurance event called ‘The Race for Mental Health’ organised by Jimmy Broadbent – and the reigning World Champion had to put up with some jokes at his expense Entering the event as part of Team Redline Verstappen was targeted by a fan willing to cough up some money to poke fun at the Dutch driver’s 2024 season Viewers of the 23 Hours of Zolder race could inflict penalties upon participants by way of making donations and Verstappen – as the race’s highest-profile driver – found himself the primary choice A viewer posed as the FIA, with whom Verstappen has had several terse moments recently due to being hit with sporting penalties and punishments for cursing, and paid £100 in order to inflict penalties on the Red Bull driver Their first donation was sent with the message: “Stop and go penalty for car #1.” poking fun at Verstappen’s community service punishment for swearing during the Singapore GP press conference the viewer sent through another donation and said: “Max you used language that was coarse and offensive for broadcast so it’s another stop-and-go for car 1 Community service is next – we’re watching.” With the race meant as a charity fundraiser rather than a full-on competitive sim racing outing Verstappen was able to see the fun in it as he retorted: “Why am I being singled out?!” Showing his usual sharpness regarding the rules Verstappen could also be heard arguing over a penalty as he claimed he shouldn’t take a penalty as his car was “number 1 not 01 so whoever did that can p**s off!” Featured on the car was an image of Lando Norris running wide into Turn 1 at the Brazilian Grand Prix accompanied by the caption ‘Think Different’ in reference to previous Mercedes advertisements Images of George Russell comparing him to Woody from Toy Story also featured as well as FOM’s TV graphic to impose a 10-second time penalty on Verstappen The livery for Team Redline (Max's team) in the 23HR Race for mental health 💀😭 pic.twitter.com/jValOLpu5G — RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) November 9, 2024 👉 Max Verstappen car collection: What supercars does the F1 World Champion own? 👉 Max Verstappen net worth: How the World Champion has built his incredible fortune The 23 Hours of Zolder was the sixth such Race for Mental Health organised by Broadbent and has become a staple of the sim racing community – of whom Verstappen is a leading proponent when not racing in F1 “This race is near and dear to me,” Broadbent said in the build-up “I (like many others) have suffered with my own mental health issues and found charities like Mind to be invaluable My proudest achievement to date is that our community has raised nearly £300k for this cause…it’s hard to overstate just how much of a difference that makes.” Posting in the aftermath of the race, Broadbent revealed the extent of the funds raised by the event, posting on X (formerly Twitter) to say: “What a crazy last hour. We went from about £70k all the way to £93k, smashing our previous record! Including gift aid takes our total for this event to £103,000 raised for the amazing people over at @MindCharity. “I am infinitely proud of this community Read Next: Sebastian Vettel racing return gathers pace after new Porsche admission © Planet Sport Limited 2025 • All Rights Reserved As the Formula 1 circus winds its way from Hungaroring to Spa-Francorchamps it is hardly necessary for us to remind ourselves that it is a truth universally acknowledged that the home of the Belgian Grand Prix is the greatest circuit on the F1 calendar and remains a busy and thriving motor sport venue today In winning the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix from 14th on the grid Max Verstappen has achieved something that only two F1 greats — Jim Clark and Michael Schumacher — have managed before him Motor Sport’s continental correspondent Denis Jenkinson – aka Jenks or DSJ – devoted the first paragraph of his 1973 Belgian Grand Prix report to denouncing the abandonment of Spa blaming “JY Stewart and his small but vociferous band” for the aberration ending that vituperative opening par with the words “moving the race to Zolder is such a huge joke that it is no longer funny but depressing in the extreme” for he ended his piece with the words… “Stewart just drove away from everyone the most disastrous Belgian Grand Prix of all time quietly fizzled out if it was an example of the way grand prix racing is going then we ought to fold the whole thing up before it becomes the laughing stock of the rest of the world” You thought journalists moaning about F1 was a new thing The 1973 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder was a 1-2 for Tyrrell team-mates Jackie Stewart (No5) and François Cevert There and then it was that the great Gilles Villeneuve lost his life in qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix in an effort to slow things down in the wake of the tragedy since 1986 Turn 7 has been a finicky chicane https://youtu.be/P-AHASG5Ddc Gilles Villeneuve’s wife has paid tribute to him as a true racer who sought out the very edge of performance in a video clip released to commemorate the… and he did the same thing – in the same place – the following year a hugely talented young driver who was just entering his prime He DNF’d with a broken wheel bearing in the next grand prix, his home race at Anderstorp, then he was fourth at Dijon and third at Silverstone But the last seven grands prix of his season all resulted in DNFs that he found out what had been undermining his form: he had terminal cancer refusing pain-killing meds in his final weeks so as to remain alert enough to set up the Gunnar Nilsson Cancer Foundation winning from a dominant pole position and carving fastest lap on the way but on the podium his face was downcast and he sprayed no Champagne Jochen Mass has spoken of the remorse he felt over the incident which killed his friend Gilles Villeneuve Zolder’s pit lane had always been crazily narrow and during Friday practice an Osella mechanic had fallen off the pit wall in front of Reutemann’s Williams FW07C There had been no space into which Reutemann could swerve He was taken to the University Hospital in Leuven He fell into a coma and on the Monday after the race he succumbed to his injuries Reutemann later visited his parents in Italy: a mark of the man Never forgotten: the sensational Gilles Villeneuve showing not only the great skill but also the sheer guts that characterised one of the most underrated drivers of his era charging through the field from 12th on the grid On the podium he managed a thin smile and waved briefly to the crowd “Someone had to win the bloody thing,” he said to me 20-odd years later I did not go to any of those races, for in 1985 Spa was reinstated as the home of the Belgian Grand Prix, and I did not attend overseas F1 races until I began to write about them in the early 1990s. It was not until May 2019 that I finally went to Zolder, when it staged the second ever race in the W Series for which I was then working as communications director That half-hour sprint was won by Beitske Visser, but her victory is not what I remember most clearly about the weekend. No, the memory that sits vividly in my mind still, and always will, is walking the track the day before with 1970s Aurora British F1 and Shellsport International Series driver Divina Galica already 75 in 2019 but then as now both energetic and enthusiastic whom we had engaged as a mentor to the W Series drivers some of whom had had no single-seater experience As Divina and I passed the Turn 7 chicane – Gilles Villeneuve Bocht – ahead of us we saw a large 27 chalked on the tyre wall on the right-hand side of the track Max Verstappen is set to start on pole for the 2025 Miami Grand Prix after a brilliant lap that left Lando Norris second Here's how the starting grid looks for Sunday's race Norris got lucky with the timing of a late safety car to win Miami's sprint race The 2025 Miami GP's one-off liveries – particularly Ferrari's – are a timely reminder that 'special' doesn't always mean good Mercedes star Antonelli secures Miami Grand Prix sprint pole at 18 years of age Italy takes a pair of podium spots with Mattia Cattaneo in third Switzerland's Stefan Küng finished just shy of 10 seconds slower to take the silver medal while Mattia Cattaneo was a surprising third It was a tight race between the 2021 European Champion Küng and the 2018 under-23 European Champion Affini with Küng going out harder in the first 10 kilometres The Swiss rider was quickest at that first check Affini had picked up his pace considerably while Küng was more steady and came through the check 0.62 seconds slower than Affini Küng rallied and clawed back a few seconds but it wasn't enough He came in 9.59 slower than the Italian's time Affini is the first Italian winner of the European men's time trial which was added to the UEC's programme in 2016 and it was an emotional moment for the 28-year-old who received a congratulatory phone call from compatriot Filippo Ganna after the finish "I don't know what to say," Affini said fighting back tears The last three weeks have been a difficult Vuelta for me One of the most difficult Grand Tours ever for me but I felt like I lacked the power to achieve a good result I'm trying to enjoy it as much as possible I can achieve another good result with my national team." The European Championships continue on Thursday with the team time trial mixed relay she coordinates coverage for North American events and global news As former elite-level road racer who dabbled in cyclo-cross and track Laura has a passion for all three disciplines When not working she likes to go camping and explore lesser traveled roads UCI governance and performing data analysis integrates several sports besides cycling under one roof It contains a 250-metre indoor cycling track with central sports fields with 1,000 fixed and 1,000 mobile seats a medical centre for the Zolder racecourse there are practical facilities such as changing rooms The indoor cycling track is the second UCI-approved cycling track built in Flanders the Flemish Cycling Centre Eddy Merckx in Ghent The sports infrastructure is of the highest level: the biggest international competitions can take place young athletes can be coached in all the various sports The design unites all sports under one roof ensuring an efficient and integrated functioning It also encourages social contact between the different sports groups and spectators The thoughtful walkways ensure smooth and logical movement throughout the building The architectural language is inspired by the dynamics of track cycling with a pure The Heusden-Zolder velodrome is a large concrete tank located below the average groundwater level the base plate was anchored in the ground with 56 poles concrete beams weighing 27 tons each were placed on top of the gymnasium The walls of the gymnasium consist of concrete slabs of 40 cm and 32 cm thick it was possible to complete the shell of the Heusden-Zolder velodrome in just four months The design of the Velodroom involves local management of water management with rainwater collection and a local reed field system Behind the gymnasium is the technical room for the reed field a field with reed plants in an adapted substrate This is the purification plant for the gray water (wastewater from showers and sinks) of the Velodroom The micro-organisms and the reeds break down the waste products in the water Purified water is reused for toilet flushing and the water from the toilets is drained via a pressure pipe 16m below the Bolderberg (towards St- Jobstraat near Hostellerie De Kluis because there is no sewerage in the immediate area) There are photovoltaic solar panels on the roof with a total capacity of 319 kWp The materials used have a good NIBE classification or a European Ecolabel such as FSC/PEFC (wood) which leads to a material saving of 24% compared to a traditional sloping roof this is due to the construction of the walls (with heraclite plates fiber cement plates and EPDM) and the roof construction of deeply profiled roof plates filled with rock wool Committente: VZW sportcomplex Vlaanderen & Heusden-Zolder Progettisti: B-juxta (Team: Katrien Houben Budget: 23,1 milioni di euro (IVA esclusa) Privacy policy Christina Schweinberger third in 31.2km race against the clock from Heusden-Zolder to Hasselt Lotte Kopecky wins elite women's time trial at the UEC Road European Championships(Image credit: Getty Images)Anna Kiesenhofer competes during the elite women's time trial at the 2024 UEC Road Cycling European Championships (Image credit: Getty Images) The reigning Belgian time trial champion completed the 31.2km course in a time of 39 minutes at an average speed of 47.984kph to claim her first-ever European title Van Dijk took the silver medal at a deficit of 44 seconds, while Christina Schweinberger (Austria) rounded out the podium with bronze a further 19 seconds back I have to thank my coach who drew up a pace plan at the Olympic Games and here,” Kopecky said after her win so it was a very nice time trial where I could ride the power that was set “I gained time at every intermediate point so that was good for the morale along the way The decisive part was definitely between 10 and 15km with a headwind You could make a big difference there.” Norway’s Katrine Aalerud was the quickest of the early runners recording a time of 40:25 to take over the hot seat from Mieke Kröger (Germany) by 24 seconds She’d only last in the provisional lead for a matter of minutes with Van Dijk coming through to set the quickest time at both checkpoints and the finish The Dutchwoman was the 15th starter of 27 competitors and had won the title four times in a row between 2016 and 2019 Her time held strong as the next several riders and Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Poland) crossed the line Vittoria Guazzini (Italy) was the sixth-last woman to finish taking over second place in the process with a time of 40:10 but she wouldn’t stay on the podium as the late runners came to the line Kopecky’s time at the first checkpoint – 13:25 – was three seconds up on Van Dijk an advantage she extended to 15 seconds at the second checkpoint she had added 29 seconds to that lead to take over the hot seat Only Riejanne Markus (Netherlands) and Schweinberger remained out on the course by that point though both lagged over a minute behind Kopecky Markus’ time of 40:06 saw her briefly take over the bronze medal position before Schweinberger raced home just two seconds up to secure the final spot on the podium behind Kopecky and Van Dijk Dani has reported from the world's top races She has interviewed many of the sport's biggest stars and her favourite races are the Giro d'Italia Norwegian part of three-rider long-range attack that stays clear As our writers continue to pick their highlights of The Race’s 2021 content Matt Beer selects an article that travelled back 40 years for an often forgotten bleak day in F1 As a teenager trying to quickly accelerate my motorsport knowledge because I was a bit of a late starter who desperately wanted to be a motor racing journalist as swiftly as possible I requested a selection of four Duke Video F1 season highlights VHS tapes for Christmas 1995 1989 and 1993 looked like the right cross-section to bring me up to speed (and four videos was an affordable amount for my parents) The events of Zolder 1981 (and how graphically they’re portrayed on the highlights video) were a jarring element of a season I quickly became obsessed with In the very earliest days of The Race’s inception in 2020 Sam Smith mooted a feature with some of those involved in that dark day and it was instantly commissioned for the 40th anniversary a year later Formula 1 was a bit of a basket case in 1981 the fifth round of that year’s world championship it seemed like all of the sport’s malignant issues came together in an appalling weekend of confusion toxic rancour and a needless waste of life This melting pot of discord and political bitterness congealed in front of a then relatively rare live TV broadcast which in turn let the whole sorry spectacle play out to millions of viewers on the afternoon of Sunday May 17 One that included a chaotic grid protest from mechanics and drivers a disordered start procedure and a shambolic accident that culminated with an injured mechanic sprawled across the track He was presumed dead by the driver who had hit him who was starting only his third grand prix was then fined for supposedly triggering the shambles now merely a curious footnote in F1 history Like hundreds of other drivers that reached the pinnacle but failed to make a serious impact “What happened all those years ago is against almost any belief now all these years forward,” Stohr tells The Race in his quirky but engaging English “I look back at that weekend now and I see a blackness the bigger picture was all a matter of short-term pain for long-term gain in many of the events that led up to his team being at the centre of the infamous episode “Essentially there were the ‘grandees’ as they were called and there was the ‘garagistes’ in F1 at that time Colin [Chapman – Lotus] and Frank [Williams],” Oliver tells The Race the argument was about taking commercial control [of F1] and you have to say it worked out very well there’s always a bit of fighting and in 1981 it was more than just a bit Zolder was just a few months on from the renegade South African Grand Prix at Kyalami which was organised for what were known as the FOCA teams (the group containing Williams etc) under the dubious auspices of the World Federation of Motorsport which was unsurprisingly not granted world championship status by FISA – as the FIA was then titled By Zolder the main bone of contention was a technical one FISA decreed that hydraulic and pneumatic suspension systems – methods of adjusting ride height for maximum ground effect aero – were legal and that the previously popular ground effect skirts had to be solid and non-sliding Part of the rushed through regulatory mandate stated that “no ride height adjusting device should allow the car in its lowest position to have a ground clearance of less than six centimetres” This part of the rules was flagrantly ignored by teams in Belgium While many picked at the semantics of the rule others laughed in its face – with Renault running dual rate springs and Ligier briefly running hinged skirts The atmosphere of lawlessness turned to open chaos as the weekend progressed This was as close to the wild west as F1 came during a time of abject turmoil But grimmer matters prevailed on Friday afternoon which had already been described as unworkable by some teams before heading to the track tripped and fell from the narrow stepped pitwall and into the path of Carlos Reutemann’s Williams With the pitlane rammed full with an uncontrolled mix of teams the tight confines left no room for Reutemann to miss the unfortunate youngster “Zolder was terrible for mechanics to work at “In the paddock there was one toilet for over a thousand people or whatever and the design of the pits was not so nice Amadeo received a serious head injury from which he would die the following week Some of his fellow mechanics decided to show their anger by downing tools on the grid to make their grievances public as the live TV cameras ran But the main thrust of the demonstration was actually the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association which wanted to make its point regarding what it believed to be an absurd decision not to hold a pre-qualifying session on the Saturday to boil down the 31 entries to the then maximum grid of 24 starters This was just one of dozens of issues that the drivers wanted to be aired in the full view of a live TV syndication The broadcast had been instigated by Brabham boss Bernie Ecclestone as he continued to gain traction as the commercial leader of F1 as it jerked nervously into the 1980s Confusion reigned and no one appeared to be in control Some drivers stayed in their cars and others milled around the front of the grid with a host of mechanics and story-hungry media Lotus boss Colin Chapman and Tyrrell owner Ken Tyrrell strong-armed their respective drivers and refused to let them leave their cockpits but a chain reaction had been started that would come back to haunt all of them just a few minutes later just beginning his now-legendary commentary partnership with Murray Walker gave his typically trenchant views about the scene on the grid during the build-up which was screened live on BBC’s Sunday Grandstand “The pit road is far too narrow and there are far too many people in it,” he observed “A lot of people get in the pit road who actually don’t have anything to do except lurk and pose In footage of the grid scene, which can be found on YouTube Ecclestone can be viewed shouting at his driver Nelson Piquet – who had qualified second – to ‘go’ as other drivers are making their way back to their cars following the chaotic demonstration and in doing so triggered the appalling events Stohr recalls vividly what he saw as he stood in solidarity with the mechanics along with approximately half of his fellow drivers who also wanted to make their own points which they felt had been ignored for far too long “I remember walking past Bernie and he was shouting at Piquet on the grid to go on his warm-up lap,” says Stohr That was the reason only some drivers jumped down from the car and cannot reach us [on the grid] because Ken Colin and Bernie said to their drivers ‘if you get out “The real problem was Bernie was paying the TV satellite by the minute Because there was a lot of money at stake and as we know Bernie and money are strongly linked always.” A nervous Stohr ran back to his car and he recalls a surreal situation as he struggled to get in the cockpit and belted up as some drivers already departed “I walked back with Mario [Andretti] who was very cool and just walking but I started to run because I was nervous but Mario was laughing about this whole situation who should have led the 23 other cars around in the stipulated orderly fashion we were at the beginning of a new era of working and it was completely blind sometimes” :: Roland Bruynseraede By the time he and a delayed Gilles Villeneuve came to thread their way through the grid several cars’ water temperatures were sky rocketing while Eddie Cheever (eighth on the grid for Tyrrell) and Stohr’s team-mate Riccardo Patrese (fourth) were others who switched off his engine in the mistaken belief the race would be rescheduled But Patrese’s Arrows crew took more time as it similarly decided to deploy chief mechanic Dave Luckett over the wall to get the Italian going again “Some drivers were switching off the engine because they thought it would be delayed and I almost did the same,” says Stohr “I think [team manager] Alan Rees or maybe Dave signalled to Riccardo that the race will be stopped [aborted] so he switched off But sadly this was not the case that the race was stopped.” At almost the precise moment Luckett ducked under Patrese’s rear wing to insert the starter It was an unfathomable decision because not only was it clear Patrese had stalled but incredibly there was a blazered official (believed to be clerk of the course Paul Grutman) standing on the grass no more than two metres away from the action Then official starter Derek Ongaro was “about 20 metres in front of the leading car and about one metre above the guardrail” Bruynseraede – pictured below in 2003 – would go on to replace Ongaro as the official starter and circuit inspector In 1981 he worked closely with official clerk of the course Grutman He makes the very valid point that motorsport simply didn’t have the same communication systems as today and race control was not in full time contact with either Ongaro or Grutman “If you’re sitting today in race control today you have all your visuals you need in front of you,” Bruynseraede tells The Race you have so much information that you receive in each car let’s say by every metre on the circuit “You have so much more information around the circuit each marshal can communicate with race control we were at the beginning of a new era of working and it was completely blind sometimes.” Ongaro plainly didn’t see Luckett vault the barrier and was already committed to starting the race anyway Had Ongaro himself been pressured on the grid too in light of the incessant TV satellite meter ticking incessantly and had he then rushed through the procedure as the muddled grid formed itself As the cars sprinted away Patrese glanced over his shoulder and saw Luckett approach the rear of his car and with no yellow flags warning of the stalled Arrows the situation on the narrow pit straight went from confused to starkly terrifying in a matter of seconds Alan Jones jinked his Williams just out of the stricken Patrese’s way and a following Nigel Mansell missed hitting the Arrows by mere inches Stohr was unsighted by Keke Rosberg’s Fittipaldi so when the Finn jinked right on seeing Patrese Stohr was confronted by the rear of the Arrows and also to his horror a crouched Luckett Despite braking “so hard I detached a ligament in my foot” Stohr slammed into the back of Patrese and sent Luckett sprawling in the full view of the live TV cameras and as I was about to hit I thought for sure he will die,” says Stohr “When I hit I was even more sure he was gone and you can see when I jump from the car my reaction was very bad because I see Dave had unconscious movement and I see from his ear some blood.” Stohr vaulted from his car but tripped over the cockpit side as he did so in his hurry to tend to the stricken mechanic he was instantly led away by a quick-thinking Ligier mechanic as Luckett was tended to by first his own mechanics and then by medics the race somehow continued as an ambulance on the grid readied to take the injured Luckett to hospital In scenes which beggar belief in the context of the slick manner in which F1 is run today leader Piquet passed the harrowing scene at full racing speed while the rest of the pack followed even had to back out of a move on John Watson’s McLaren in avoidance while Marc Surer’s Ensign ran onto the grass to avoid the melee What makes the whole farrago even darker is that the ambulance taking Luckett to the medical centre completed an entire lap while the race was still live Still the race was not red-flagged though and a second lap was completed although this time most of the grid parked on the grid and effectively stopped the race themselves in scenes of utter chaos which almost rendered Hunt speechless “I hold organisers totally responsible for that total incompetence there,” said Hunt furiously “I’m afraid the organisers have behaved in a typically amateurish incompetent way and we’ve got a person at least seriously injured.” As Ongaro made his way back to race control stopping at the scene to oversee Luckett’s rescue Bruynseraede was monitoring events in race control but didn’t have TV images to see the scene of chaos on the grid so before we knew how bad it was there was already one lap gone in the race,” he says The delay in stopping the race is explained away via the lack of communication and the haste in which medical teams ferried the unconscious and seriously injured Luckett to hospital The fallout from the incidents led to Grutman immediately resigning his post and stopping his involvement in motorsport at such a level patrolled the new dummy grid and sought the counsel of GPDA director Pironi and his Ferrari team-mate Villeneuve in full view of TV cameras and photographers “The only drivers I started speaking with when I joined F1 were Didier and Gilles and we talked in French after the accident,” recalls Stohr “I remember Pironi takes my hands and without saying anything he makes a gesture to me ‘be quiet’ “And Gilles told me in very cold words: ‘Siegfried “I was surprised of what Gilles told me because I was expecting him to say something more friendly ‘Be careful of the words you are using,’ he kept saying This gives some indication as to the feeling of volatility and paranoia that existed in 1981 primarily through the fear that FISA president Jean-Marie Balestre had started to instil while surprising to an inexperienced Stohr were soon proven to be a pertinent warning When he and the 11 other drivers that had vacated their cockpits in Zolder turned up at the next race in Monaco they were issued with an astonishing official FISA summons for them to be relieved of $5000 “I had to go and pay with the other drivers $5000 because it was ‘all our fault,’ ” says Stohr He is a man I cannot talk about even now 40 years later because I get so angry.” As for official investigations into the incidents at Zolder nothing public was ever officially released “Every race you learn something and back in 1981 we learned lots all the time because the sport was growing with technology and even in the media too,” he says “If you see what’s happened last year If the head protection had not been put in a few years before “Maybe we will have next year another accident I don’t know what or why or where and I certainly hope we don’t “Every race and every commission that we are doing we are working only to give more safety for every driver and not only F1 but for all racing.” Practically speaking the lessons were also far-reaching and noticeable almost immediately for the competitors “The RACB [Royal Automobile Club de Belgium] decided simply to get the race on because it was already 20 minutes delayed it was plain this is what happened,” says Oliver and they understood why there was confusion and they put a meeting together with FISA to say in the event of delay there should be rescheduling of the whole procedure “This morphed into the present thing whenever you do that everyone goes in the pits or goes onto the grid and then you do the whole procession again “As a direct consequence this was all rightly inserted into the regulations and tweaks since 1981.” The fallout from the events has to be put into perspective This was a pre-internet time of course and although the live TV viewers were shocked and outraged by the amateur spectacle they had no other way of expressing their feelings than writing letters to magazines which by the time they were published usually meant the shocking events had dissipated somewhat in the following Thursday’s edition of Autosport magazine the front cover barely alluded to the shambles with a shot of a relaxed Reutemann sat in his Williams FW08 in the pits on closer inspection it appears that this photo is actually from the previous grand prix at Imola The rather lethargic headline read: ‘Reutemann extends lead’ while the sub-head details simply ‘Dramatic Belgian GP’ Inside the pages though there is a detailed analysis of the incident written by future Leyton House and Jordan team manager Ian Phillips Intriguingly he relays that “at least three requests – in English – were made over the PA system that someone from the Arrows team should go to Patrese’s aid” In the letters section of the magazine a Mr John Stewart of Keighley spoke for many fans when he wrote he was “disgusted” by what he saw the 1981 Belgian GP farce will stand as a suitable epitaph He made a quick recovery from a broken leg and lacerations went on to work in racing for a further three decades for Arrows West Surrey Racing and the Highcroft sportscar team But there was one other injury from his 1981 grid escapade which got the attention of his boss Oliver “I took Dave out to dinner after he’d recovered to see how he was getting on and I got some of the other guys together to cheer him up,” he recalls “I said ‘you were bloody lucky there ‘yeah but look,’ and just as we are about to eat he put his hand up and the top of his little finger is missing “He’d snagged it on the back of the gearbox when he got pushed into the car Dutch squad beats Germany and Norway to win as Belgium finish fourth Roos Müller and Michiel Mouris combined to win The six-rider squad averaged 48.001kph over the 52.4km course to Hasselt beating out Germany by 13 seconds for the nation's fifth medal of the Championships Norway rounded out the medal positions in bronze 23 seconds down while the home squad of Belgium finished fourth at 46 seconds Viktória Chladoňová takes the bronze in 13.3km race Results powered by FirstCycling Germany takes silver while Belgium debuts on podium with bronze Italy reclaimed the European title in the team time trial mixed relay at the UEC European Road Championships in Limburg on Thursday who beat Italy to the title in 2023 did not enter a team in the race The victory marks Italy's second victory in the mixed relay since the event debuted in the European Championships in 2019 and Mirco Maestri were second to Germany at the changeover after 28.3km but the trio of women Elena Cecchini pulled out a 17-second victory over the German team of Nils Politt For the first time in European TTT history and Victor Vercouillie pulled out a 27-second lead over the Polish squad in their laps and Jesse Vandenbulcke held off the Poles by 16 seconds to win the bronze Only six nations entered teams in the event and Agnieszka Skalniak-Sojka taking fourth Tetiana Yashchenko) were fifth and Bulgaria (Martin Papanov The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox! Cyclingnews is the world's leader in English-language coverage of professional cycling Started in 1995 by University of Newcastle professor Bill Mitchell the site was one of the first to provide breaking news and results over the internet in English The site was purchased by Knapp Communications in 1999 and owner Gerard Knapp built it into the definitive voice of pro cycling major publishing house Future PLC has owned the site and expanded it to include top features The site continues to be the most comprehensive and authoritative English voice in professional cycling beating Söderqvist and Mouris on home ground Alec Segaert (Belgium) once again won the U23 men's European time trial title (Image credit: Getty Images)The final podium – Segaert and Mouris(Image credit: Getty Images)Segaert finishes his winning effort in Hasselt(Image credit: Getty Images)Söderqvist took second place(Image credit: Getty Images)Wessel Mouris rounded out the podium(Image credit: Getty Images)Alec Segaert successfully defended his European U23 men's time trial title on home ground in Hasselt The 21-year-old Belgian tackled the 31.3km course in a time of 35:06 to retake the gold medal he won in the Dutch town of Emmen last year He beat out Sweden's Jakob Söderqvist by 31 seconds while Dutchman Wessel Mouris – the older brother of newly crowned junior European time trial champion Michiel – claimed bronze a further four seconds back who this year turned professional with Lotto-Dstny can add his victory here to a plethora of time trial wins at junior and U23 level He has now won the European U23 time trial three times in a row having won the junior title back in 2021. beating Magnus Sheffield in the time trial at the Renewi Tour Rafaelle Carrier debuted her new ride for this ‘cross season, courtesy of French WorldTour Arkea B&B Hotels The junior star is riding a Bianchi Zolder Pro outfitted with Shimano Dura-Ace Que.’s Carrier will receive support from Arkea-B&B Hotels for the 2024-2025 cyclocross season This includes logistical and material backing for her UCI CX World Cup races in Europe who won silver at the 2024 UCI junior XC mountain bike championships this past summer “I’ll be riding Arkea-B&B Hotels’ Bianchi cyclocross bikes,” Carrier said “Having their logistical and material support is an incredible opportunity for me.” Carrier will also ride for the team on the road as a stagiaire in August 2025 Carrier, the reigning Pan Am Champion, was the odds-on favourite for the national junior crown This was just one of her many results this year including a spectacular silver at the 2024 XCO MTB world championships At the 2024 ‘cross worlds, she finished 16th and definitely hopes to top that in the new year Get the digital edition of Canadian Cycling Magazine Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Scarlett Souren takes second as Eleonora Gasparrini rounds out the podium for Italy sprinting to victory from a full peloton in Hasselt The 22-year-old scored the Netherlands' third gold medal of the week after a perfect run-in to the line for her and her team Her Dutch teammate and lead-out woman Scarlett Souren finished off a one-two in second place. Eleonora Gasparrini finished third to take bronze – Italy's fourth medal of the Championships Van Rooijen's win came after her Dutch squad had controlled the final kilometres of the 101km race run over flat roads between Heusden-Zolder and Hasselt which also included Ilse Pluimers and Nienke Vinke shut down attempted late attacks by several Italian riders as well as Julia Kopecky (Czechia) and Wilma Aintila (Finland) to ensure a bunch sprint finish Belgium had attempted several moves to send riders clear once the early break of Mikka Holm (Denmark) and Nela Slanikova (Czechia) had been reeled in though no big names managed to slip clear and disrupt the sprint As the race hit the final of the local laps around Hasselt some 14km out a crash took several riders out of contention Finnish sprint hope and newly crowned U23 time trial champion Anniina Ahtosalo was among them with the 21-year-old eventually rolling home in 74th place at 1:42 down keeping the lead group together for the finishing sprint where Souren delivered a textbook lead out for her trade teammate Van Rooijen staying close to take silver as Van Rooijen sped ahead to the blue-striped jersey of European U23 champion Dutch junior TT champion beats Belgian Jasper Schoofs and German Paul Fietzke who holds the Dutch junior men's time trial title claimed the victory by seven seconds on the flat 31.2km course between Heusden-Zolder and Hasselt 60 riders took on the race with Belgian racer Jasper Schoofs finishing second for the silver medal Paul Fietzke of Germany took third place at 24 seconds down having edged out Czech rider Pavel Sumpik by just three seconds It’s been a couple years since we caught up with Wout van Aert’s bikes on the World Cup cyclocross circuit so there was a lot of new kit to see on the ex-World Champion’s new 2021 Bianchi Zolder Pro cross bike Last weekend the top-level of CX racing returned with the first World Cup round in Tábor And after spending his summer winning stages at the Tour de France Van Aert had warned he wasn’t yet in ‘top form’ but still managed to fight back hard through the full pack of racers to claim third place His CX race bike for Tábor is another iteration of the carbon Zolder Pro introduced early last year This being his first weekend of cyclocross racing this season most of his bike fleet were still sporting last year’s celeste paintjob with small team edition graphics hiding the next generation frameset… But of course Wout as a 3x CX World Champ gets at least a tiny bit of the latest & greatest so he spent most of his time racing over the weekend on a bike with the new The previous Zolder Pro refresh had been developed before Van Aert made the jump to Jumbo-Visma and onto Bianchis It was rumored that the modern carbon cross refresh of the Zolder line was something of a prerequisite for the Belgian rider to leave his World Championship winning Stevens Super Prestiges But it looks like there were more updates to be made The new cross bike gets a completely reshaped rear triangle with dropped seatstays for improved comfort and the removal of the vestigial seatstay bridge for better mud clearance The geometry of the bike has been tweaked again as well Contrary to some initial suggestion we received from Bianchi geometry does appear to carry over unchanged in this latest 2021 update with a relatively slack 71-71.5° head angle in the middle sizes and a steep 74-74.5° seattube It also gets a higher bottom bracket for better crank clearance varying from 53-62mm across the six size range (48-58cm) trimming down the crown (and losing the old fender mount) with a more square off design inside to boost tire clearance to 40mm – also helpful for heavy cross mud Wout asked Bianchi to lower the bottle bosses on the seattube so they wouldn’t get in the way while shouldering the bike downtube internal cable routing & flat mount disk brakes but gets a cleaner update for its 12mm thru-axles with replaceable alloy thread inserts – plus a new claimed frame weight of just 990g Van Aert is racing a complete Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 R9100 drivetrain with closely-spaced CX pro 46/39T chainrings on 172.5mm cranks His contact points get handled by the FSA Vision collective, with a long one-piece Vision Metron 6D carbon bar+stem combo managing the cross cockpit Wout raced on previous generation Fizik Antares R1 saddles with carbon rails and matching celeste detailing in their Wing Flex cutouts As you may have noticed above at the seat cluster detail he also has an extra clamp around the 27.2 FSA K-Force carbon seatpost to make sure it doesn’t slip on flying remounts Wout’s rolling stock choice for the damp recently-thawed grassy Tábor CX course were 33mm Dugast Typhoon tubulars with cotton casings The tires are glued up to C40 Dura-Ace carbon tubular wheels And just a reminder that… sure the best cross racers in the world can hop the barriers but they aren’t necessarily flying high over them Wout put the low-pressure tubulars to the test folding them down to the rim as he huck the bike over the Czech course’s uphill obstacles But pros still need to have at least one or two clean bikes in the waiting in case the racing goes sideways out on the course Wout van Aert didn’t have any mechanical issues during the race and motored back to the front in the second half to secure a podium spot With only four more races left in the abbreviated World Cup Van Aert will be able to race closer to home in Belgium & the Netherlands from around Christmastime through to World’s at the end of January We’ll have to wait to see how far his new 2021 Bianchi Zolder Pro cross bike will carry him Bianchi.com Cory Benson is the EU Tech Editor of Bikerumor.com Cory has been writing about mountain bikes gravel bikes & bikepacking for over 25 years even before the industry created some of these names Cory was a practicing Architect specializing in environmental sustainability has designed bike shops & bike components Cory travels extensively across Europe riding bikes meeting with key European product developers industry experts & tastemakers for an in-depth review of what’s new Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed because there’s no cx bike in their catalog The Aspero was raced in a few world cups last year under Sunweb riders There’s zero chance you’ll find Wout racing a CX bike with 70mm+ of BB drop I think the article should say “LONG 435 chainstays” you say “the geometry of the bike has been tweaked again as well” all the numbers are the same as with the previous generation do your home work and stop putting fake info out there just to make yourself interesting Bianchi had suggested that the geometry had been modified Digging through their last two season of the previous model I can confirm that the fit & angles of this new 2021 model are unchanged It should have been 425 as Mircea notes as well Could the Cervelo Caledonia be used as a CX bike I’m curious to see if he’ll be required to ride Cervelo for cross come Jan I’m guessing not since Cervelo does not make a proper cross bike – their gravel bike was raced by Jori Niewenhuis recently in Tabor but required a LOT of mods to make it acceptable including an eccentric bottom bracket to raise the crankset up a bit I’m guessing Wout has been given the latitude by the team to continue on with Bianchi for this season Maybe next year Cervelo will jump in the game with a proper cross bike I’m guessing that since Cervelo currently doesn’t have a cross bike that van Aert will race this current bike painted up with team colors and a Cervelo decal does bianchi know that their US website is terrible did you tell them when they asked you to write this article It does, tho’: https://www.bianchi.com/bikes/road/cyclocross-road/ the the data is there if’n you look hard enough Peak Performance expands on their MTB specific clothing with new pants Apparently that’s an option when you’re designing products for the GOAT We spotted Cofidis racing an all-new prototype wireless 13-speed Campagnolo Super Record 13 WRL SC road groupset Canyon Bicycles is now selling select models directly through Amazon.com Want wireless shifting but don’t want to have to buy a whole new drivetrain Be protected from the sun with the new UV Hooded Trail Shirt… OrNot The new Van Nicholas Astraeus is a beautiful titanium road bike that’s limited to just 50 frames Etna in Sicily will host the first Everesting World Championships in Fall 2025 where individuals & teams attempt to summit by bike Dutchman beats Germany's Niklas Behrens in two-man sprint outsprinting Niklas Behrens (Germany) at the end of the 162km race in Hasselt Frenchman Léandre Lozouet rounded out the podium to take the bronze medal 10 seconds later Behrens and Lozouet went away in the winning move with over 40km to go ahead of the day's final climbs of the Kolmontberg and Zammelenberg Scattered chase groups behind looked at one point to be dragging back the 30-second gap the leaders enjoyed over the final climb but there wasn't enough strength or coordination behind to fully eat into the lead on the closing local laps as the riders passed through the finish line for the penultimate time just 20 seconds separated the leaders from the chase of Mats Wenzel (Luxembourg) and Fabian Weiss (Switzerland) that was as close as those behind would get to the front of the race leaving the three up front to decide the medal positions Lozouet was forced to let go of gold and silver as Behrens attacked to leave him behind and had enough in the sprint to just edge out the 20-year-old in the finishing sprint I didn't expect to win," Artz said after taking the win "I was thinking all week 'How can I possibly win?' "We had a good group with three Dutch riders and then we went early with three of us but we were all strong riders it would be a matter of who had the fastest legs and it was me "I said to my directeur sportif that I think it'll be a sprint and I was waiting the race broke open earlier than I thought With the time trialing over and done with at this year's UEC Road European Championships attention on Friday turned to the road races with the U23 men tackling a 162km course between Heusden-Zolder and Hasselt after the U23 women had earlier opened the road racing action The course featured six cobbled sectors including two major cobbled climbs Two ascents of the Kolmontberg and Zammelenberg both came on two laps of a challenging Limburg circuit Roman Holzer (Switzerland) and Mateusz Gajdulewicz (Poland) formed the first breakaway of the day but with the Belgian and Dutch teams controlling the pace their lead never went much over half a minute another group got away with French trio Pierre Gautherat Matys Grisel and Léandre Lozouet joined by Dutch trio of Huub Artz as well as Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen (Denmark The first climbs of the Kolmontberg and Zammelenberg sparked a counterattack of nine riders as the race reached the cobbles of Manshoven where Lozouet Artz and Behrens got away from the leaders With more cobbles lying ahead on the Kriezel their lead grew over the 13 chasers – Belgians Steffen De Schuyteneer and Sente Sentjens Wenzel and Weiss attacked to try to go across but struggled to close the gap which held at just over 30 seconds at 20km to go The second chase group featuring the Belgians was long gone and lay almost a minute further behind the leading trio had plenty of work to do to hold off the chase behind but with the closest groups splitting into ones and twos on the toughest sections of the course The leaders continued towards the finish holding a slim lead of never more than 30 seconds but it proved to be enough to settle the race for the title as they fought amongst themselves during the closing circuit in Hasselt it was Artz who prevailed in the sprint for the line outpacing Behrens after the pair had distanced Lozouet a handful of kilometres away from the finish Netherlands sprinters beats Elisa Balsamo and Daria Pikulik after controlled race The 2024 European Championship women's podium (l-r) Elisa Balsamo (Italy Daria Pikulik (Poland) (Image credit: Getty Images)Lorena Wiebes will wear the distinctive European champion's jersey for another year(Image credit: Getty Images)Lorena Wiebes (Netherlands) followed a powerful Dutch lead-out surfed the wheels to perfection and then surged away to win the elite women's road race title at the UEC Road European Championships in Limburg The Dutch team led the field into the final flat kilometres of the 162km race from Heusden-Zolder to Hasselt at speeds reaching more than 53km/h. Although France and Italy challenged the Netherlands with their own lead-outs jumped on the Italian train and then launched the fastest sprint to the line third-placed Daria Pikulik (Poland) and fourth-place Clara Copponi (France) by several bike lengths Wiebes' victory marks the sixth consecutive win for the Netherlands in the elite women's EUC road race only beaten by Italy's Marta Bastianelli in the 2018 edition The elite women's field faced a 162 km hilly road race from Heusden-Zolder to Hasselt The peloton passed through the finish line for the first time just 27km into the race and then embarked on opening short circuits a large loop and finishing circuits in Hasselt There were six cobbled sectors on the course that added to the dynamics of the race along with four categorised ascents: Kolmontberg (700m at 4.4%) and Zammelenberg (800m at 3.8%) which were tackled a second time on the final lap of the large circuit before entering the Hasselt finish circuits mechanicals and a flurry of attacks as the peloton departed from Heusden-Zolder but the field remained intact as they entered the first cobbled sectors of the race The Dutch team with defending champion Mischa Bredewold managed the pace at the front of the field but after multiple attacks from riders on the Belgian and Spanish teams and then a countermove from Nikola Nosková (Czech Republic) the field split with roughly 50 riders in the front group Mireia Benito (Spain) was the first rider to gain any significant time on the peloton pushing her lead out to 20 seconds ahead of the back-to-back climb over the Kolmontbberg and Zammelenberg on the first large circuit Benito crested the two climbs and maintained a gap of 25 seconds over the peloton while Jade Wiel (France) attempted to bridge across to the solo breakaway rider Wiel's efforts to bridge across were short lived however and both she and Benito's time out front came to an end as the race reached the Op de Kriezel cobblestone sector with 58 km to go Loes Adegeest and Thatlita de Jong formed a new five-rider move but that too was short lived and the reduced field was back together on the second large circuit ahead of the Kolmontbberg and Zammelenberg Another series of attacks came from riders from the Netherlands but Sara Martin (Spain) was the only rider to successfully open a gap inside 30km to go As the Spanish rider pushed her lead out to 20 seconds Germany's Lea Lin Teutenberg and then her teammate Lippert gave chase followed by Nina Berton (Luxembourg) and Marion Norbert (Belgium) but none were strong enough to make it across the gap Martin's gap increased to nearly 30 seconds as she raced through the finish line at the start of the last 15 km circuit But the eight-rider Dutch team pulled to the front of the peloton slashing the gap in half on the flat circuit The Dutch riders led the field into the final kilometres of the race with a lead-out that hit speeds of over 53 km/h They were eventually challenged by the French and Italian teams inside the last kilometre and the sprint became chaotic as Italy surged on the left. Wiebes lost her lead out but wisely got on the Italian train and then kicked at the same as Balsamo with two hundred metres to go She was significantly faster than Balsamo and anyone else taking the sixth consecutive elite women's road race title for the Netherlands. Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006 Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023 Event Website | Rider Information | Live Timing We recap the latest in American bike racing from the past three weeks (December 16 - January 8) (December 23) – In a race that kicked off a busy holiday week, national champion Clara Honsinger(EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) placed 8th in the elite women’s race while David Thompson (Finkraft Junior Cycling) took 10th in men’s juniors in Mol Complete results here (December 26) – Clara Honsinger (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) placed 6th and U23 National Champion Madigan Munro (Trek Factory Racing) placed 12th in the women’s elite race in Gavere Complete results here (December 27) – American cyclists packed the top-10 in a tight men’s junior race at Heusden-Zolder, with Daniel English (Bear CX) placing 4th, Andrew (AJ) August (Finkraft Junior Cycling) coming in 5th, and Magnus White (Boulder Junior Cycling) and David Thompson (Finkraft Junior Cycling) placing 7th and 8th Complete results here (December 28) – Clara Honsinger (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) placed 16th in the elite women’s race and Eric Brunner (Blue Competition Cycles p/b Build) was 21st among elite men in the 6th race of the 8-race Superprestige series Complete results here (December 30) – Magnus White (Boulder Junior Cycling) placed 6th and David Thompson (Finkraft Junior Cycling) was 7th at the last pro CX race of 2022 Madigan Munro(Trek Factory Racing) placed 11th missing out on a top-10 placing by a second Complete results here (January 1) – Clara Honsinger (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) took her third top-10 spot in a week placing 6th in the elite women’s race on New Year’s Day in Belgium followed by Madigan Munro(Trek Factory Racing) who placed 10th with Vida Lopez de San Roman (Bear National Team) earning a spot on the podium (3rd) followed by junior national champion Kaya Musgrave (Bear CX) Daniel English (Bear CX) led the way on the junior men’s side followed by Miles Mattern (CX Hairs Devo/Trek) Complete results here (January 3) – Vida Lopez de San Roman (Bear National Team) and Kaya Musgrave (Bear CX) captured top-10 spots on the women’s junior side for the second time in three days placing 5th and 9thin round 4 of the X20 Trofee series Ian Brown (Bear CX) placed 5th in the junior men’s race Complete results here (January 5) – In round 4 of the X20 Trofee series Americans packed the top-10 in men’s juniors led by David Thompson’s (Finkraft Junior Cycling) podium spot (3rd) He was followed by Andrew (AJ) August (Finkraft Junior Cycling) 5th and Miles Mattern (CX Hairs Devo/Trek) rounding things out in 10th Complete results here (January 7) – Haylee Johnson (Finkraft Junior Cycling Team) captured a podium spot in the junior women’s race, placing 3rd at round 7 of the Superprestige CX series. She was followed by Elsa Westenfelder (Team Stampede) in 8th National Champion Curtis White (Steve Tilford Foundation) Complete results here (January 8) – At the UCI’s first World Cup CX race of the new year Vida Lopez de San Roman(Bear National Team) placed 9th and Samantha Scott (CompEdge Racing) took 10th in the junior women’s race it was their third top-10 placing in a week Q&A With 2022 Junior Coach of the Year Recognized by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee and the Union Cycliste Internationale USA Cycling is the official governing body for all disciplines of competitive cycling in the United States View Children's Online Privacy Protection Policy World champion dominant on fast course as Iserbyt injured in crash Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) suffered an early puncture but rode himself back into contention then left the rest of the chasers behind to claim second. Lars van der Haar (Telenet-Baloise) sprinted from the chase group for third. “When you hear something like that, you shouldn't wait. I didn't want to let him get back into the race, I think that makes sense ”, Van der Poel said of Van Aert's misfortune. “I tried to increase the pace and got a gap. Just then Iserbyt crashed, which is a shame for him, but that made the difference in one go quite big. That way I could set my own pace for the rest of the hour." The race was much different than Van der Poel and Van Aert's last meeting at Herentals, fast and dry rather than thick and heavy with mud. Van der Poel got the hole shot while Van Aert rocketed up from a third row start to third wheel in the first few turns. British champion Tom Pidcock (Trinity Racing) came to grief on a u-turn and had to go to the pit for a new bike, put at an immediate disadvantage at the back of the race. Van Aert took the lead on the opening lap but then suffered a rear wheel puncture, trading bad luck with Van der Poel who lost the lead due to a flat in Herentals. With Van Aert gone, and only Van der Haar, Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) and his teammate Laurens Sweeck and Corne van Kessel and Daan Soete left in front, Van der Poel twisted the throttle and forged a gap on the second lap. By the third lap, the world champion had enough of a gap that no one would come back. Iserbyt, the leader of the Superprestige series, launched a furtive chase but crashed, suffering what appeared to be a broken elbow and was stretchered away. The crash disrupting the chase, Van der Poel's gap went out over 30 seconds as Van Aert made his way back to the group with Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal). Van Aert bided his time with the gap hovering just under a minute until the penultimate lap, when he attacked in pursuit of the podium with Vanthourenhout trying but failing to scramble across. Pidcock, having chased the entire race from the last positions, rode his way into the top 10 in ninth. Italian bike maker Bianchi has quietly slipped out a new celeste Zolder Pro a modern carbon cyclocross bike that their mountain bike pros have been campaigning on this winter A huge improvement over the old carbon Zolder Disc which hadn’t yet had a thru-axle update the new bike has already been raced by Chiara Teocchi & Marco Fontana on the World Cup circuit During the off-season from the mountain bike, a few of Team Bianchi Countervail’s pro riders use cyclocross to build winter fitness and keep the training exciting But World Cup level mountain bikers don’t want to race cross on a bike with QRs and external cable routing so it was time to step up with a new pro-level cross bike Team riders Nadir Colledani & Chiara Teocchi each rode the new Zolder Pro to a win in their men & women’s categories at the bike’s debut in Northern Italy cross race at the start of December While the mountain bike team may have Countervail in their name the new cross bike sadly doesn’t get a vibration damping CV designation instead sticking with a stiff & light carbon construction The new monocoque carbon Zolder Pro and accompanying full carbon tapered 1.5″ fork are disc brake only with flat mount calipers and 12mm thru-axles at both ends (12x100mm & 12x142mm) The frame features fully internal modular cable routing for mechanical & electronic drivetrains and is set up for 2x drivetrains with a removable braze-on front derailleur hanger The frame gets a press fit bottom bracket with alloy bearing seats Bianchi hasn’t yet revealed the geometry for the new carbon cyclocross race bike but we do know that it is available in six stock frame sizes (48-58cm) The carbon frameset is available on its own for 2100€ or in a single 3150€ complete bike build combining a mix of Shimano Ultegra & 105 components in a mechanical 2×11 speed build with hydraulic disc brakes Both options are available through select international dealers, with the Munich-based German distributor BianchiStore offering up the best details so far Now that the Italian CX National Championships have passed with Teocchi earning a bronze in her race most of the pro mountain bikers on the Bianchi team will make the switch back to dedicated MTB training the new Zolder Pro is likely to see a bit more racing this season Bianchi.com I would assume he was a big part of why Bianchi stepped up their cross game @Willem To be fair Wout’s signing chaos then semi-resolution happened after this bike was already developed And he will finish this season on his Stevens Next season though… at least he’ll ride a Bianchi on the road It will certainly be interesting to see what next season brings for Wout from the cross standpoint Wout just completed an off-road ride today (Nov If you follow him on Strava you`ll see he mentions it in the ride title