The 82nd edition of the six-day Lotto will be held in Flanders-Ghent next week. The organization presented its sports program today. Defending Belgian champions Lindsay de Vylder and Rob Gies will compete against Dutch world champions Juri Haavik and Jan Willem van Schip, among others. Lottie Kopecky will participate on Friday and Saturday. On Wednesdays and Fridays, athletes also make their rounds in the sold-out Koepke Car.
Of the 12 teams that will have the honors in Quebec from November 14-19, 3 are entirely Belgian. De Velder, who won for the first time in Ghent last year, along with Gies, for whom he was No. 3, captained the Belgian team.
Noah Vandenbranden/Toor Dens and Fabio van den Bosch/Jules Heesters are the Belgian duo.
World points race champion New Zealander Aaron Jett spins with Dane Matthias Malmberg. Another Dane, Lasse Norman Hansen, is Jonas Rijkaardt’s teammate, Gianluca Polvliet is paired with German Tim Thurn Teutenberg.
The ninth and last Belgian in the field is Milan van den Hout. The 2022 AVS U23 Cup winner will be alongside experienced Italian Michele Scartezini.
In addition, there are 5 international duos: the Dutchmen Youri Havik and Jan Willem van Schip, their compatriots Vincent Hubisack and Philipp Heijnen, the German Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhart, the British Mark Stewart and Oliver Wood, and the Frenchman Oscar Nelson Julien. And Valentin Tablelon.
Klug and Reinhardt are European team race champions, Havik and Van Schip are world champions and Stuart Wood are vice-world champions at the last world championships in Glasgow.
Revenge against Havik and Van Schip: “It still hurts me”
De Vylder and Ghys were in the running for gold in Scotland for a long time, but ultimately missed out on the podium with fourth place. This still hurts.
De Vylder: “Three months later, the World Cup is still an open wound.” Guess makes it worse: “Just, a broken double leg. It brings tears to my eyes when I think about it.”
“It would be painful to see Havik and Van Schip wearing the rainbow jersey,” says de Vylder. “I wish it for them. It’s mainly their loss that upsets me.”
The Belgians want revenge in Ghent: “You have already beaten the world champions,” Guess knows. “In Ghent I will do everything in my power to do it again.”
“It’s not the same as a world title, but the Six Days of Ghent is also at the top of my list of important competitions.”
Casey, Kopecky, Fromant & Company.
The self-proclaimed Emperor of Ghent will give the official start on Tuesday at 8:25pm: Iljo Keisse last rode last year.
On Friday and Saturday, a two-day women’s elite event will be held with world road champion Lottie Kubicki. The standard-bearer for Belgian women’s cycling will compete against the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and France alongside several young talents (including Catherine de Klerk and Helen Heesters).
On Wednesday Ewood Fromant, Louis Klinke, Jarno Therrens and Niels Verscheren will compete against a strong British delegation in a number of G disciplines, and on Friday it will be the turn of the intellectually disabled riders.
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