Belgacom International RD 1 - Stoumont, Belgium

As the race for Olympic places heats up and with every athlete searching for those all-important last minute points the team made their way over to Belgium for a category 1 UCI race with our two Olympic hopefuls, David Fletcher (Great Britain) and Rourke Croeser (South Africa).

It was a familiar setting deep in Southern Belgium for round 1 of the Belgacom Belgium Mtb Grand Prix, having only been up the road a few days earlier for the Houffalize World Cup.  This however was an even tougher course than the World Cup itself with super steep climbs and technical wet off camber descents that had the majority of the field running.

It wasn't just the course that was World Cup standard though; the field contained double Olympic Champion, Julien Absalon and French star Maxime Marotte as well as Belgian hero Kevin Van Hoovels and Junior World Champion Inaki Lejarreta Errasti not to mention a host of World class Cyclo-Cross riders.

A great start from both Rourke and Dave saw them blast through the start loop inside the top 20.  The tactics had been set out to start well and quickly settle down as it would be a long race.  By lap two both riders had moved up well with Dave pushing himself inside the points and Rourke knocking on the door of the top 10!  Meanwhile Absalon was running away at the front of the race with a 2 minute gap after just 1 lap and never looking back.  

As the race neared its climax Rourke only got stronger and moved to just outside the top 5 before shaking off Tom Meeusen of Fidea Telnet to take a phenomenal 4th place in Elite (1st Under 23), beating Elite riders ranked in the top 20 in the world - without doubt one of the best results Orange Monkey-Cannondale has ever seen.

Dave was also having a solid race and maintained his good form of late by finishing inside the points with a 15th position.  It was another great weekend of racing after the triple podium just one week earlier in Dalby Forest.  Rourke now fly's to Mauritius for the African Continental Championships before the team head back into Europe for the next World Cups in the Czech Republic and France.

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