March 23, 2004 – After a short break, the Navigators Insurance squad was back in action yesterday in Belgium for the G.P Rudy Dhaenens. New Assistant D.S. Franky Van Haesebroucke filed this report.
The race was 190 km long, one 154km circuit with six hills and several cobblestones sections and two local laps of 20km. The wind was going to play a key role in the bike race with 161 riders as we had 80km/h winds at the start. Luckily, I knew all the roads so I told the guys to listen to my advice. The first 30km were into a head wind, so no danger for a breakaway but the road between Kruishoutem and Wortegem had big cross winds. I warned the boys that this 5km section was going to be crucial in the bike race because it has been the case for years.
Our five riders went to the front and went hard and the field was stretching out. Lotto and Bodysol had the same idea and made another echelon. Many riders were crashing and the bunch was splitting apart. At the end of the crosswind section, 18 riders were in the first group and Navigators had Henk Vogels in the mix. The gap back to the first 50 riders of the main pack was a quick 1min 30sec when we got to the first climb at km 45.
The race situation stayed the same until we were hitting KOM number two at km 70, a two km climb, very steep, near my house (Avelgem). The boys knew the climb well from their training rides the last few days. Bodysol was pushing it hard on this hill and Henk got in trouble with two more riders. In the peloton it was Stijn Devolder (US Postal) who was attacking on the hill. Navigators' Kirk O'Bee and three more riders saw the danger and rode across, five chasers in total. 10 km further, 12 riders joined this group with Phil Zajicek for the Navigators. The race now had 15 riders at the front with 17 now behind at 1min. Henk was now in the second group. However, the Vlaanderen team had no one in both groups and organized a big chase. 15km later the 17 riders were caught by the first part of the peloton.
The peloton was getting too big and the pace started to slow down. At km 100 the gap was 2:30 between the 15 leaders and the main pack, which was getting bigger and bigger. Kirk O'Bee had good legs and went hard on the Lippenhovestraat (cobbles), a famous section from the Tour Of Flanders. His effort brought 24 riders together in the chase, spelling the end of the peloton, which lost ground all the time from that point on. The 15 leaders were all strong riders but the 24 chasers, with Kirk, were staying at the same distance, 2:30. Once we arrived on the short finishing laps, Kirk went hard on the next cobbles and got away with Stijn Devolder, and 3 more riders joined them.
The bunch was now 13 min down and had to stop at km 154. At the same time the front group split apart in nine and six riders. Kirk was doing most of the work trying to catch the six riders in front but at the end they came 35 sec short. Belgian Champion Geert Omloop (Mr. Bookmaker-Palmans) was the man to beat and he showed today why he's a champ, he won in front of Dutch Champion Rudi Kemna (Bankgiroloterij) and third went to the English Champion; Roger Hammond (Mr. Bookmaker-Palmans). Kirk finished in 19th.