March 9, 2005 – Today the Navigators Insurance Cycling Team could finally race again after all the bad weather in the last few days. It was only a Belgian Kermes in Wanzele, 177km, 17 laps of 11km, but all the riders were very nervous to race. The field of 200 riders took off at an unbelievable speed of over 40. The Chocolate Jacques team had 16 riders at the start and decided to go from the gun. The result of this fast start after the first lap left 50 riders in the first group (including Navigators’ Mark Walters and Hilton Clarke) and 45sec down a second group of 60 riders that included Navigators’ Jeff Louder. Group one was getting clear of group two and after 70km; the gap to group two was 1min 30sec. At the 75km mark, five riders broke away from the first group; Peter Ronsse of Jartazi, Hilton Clarke of Navigators Insurance, Christof Trouve of Mr. Bookmaker, Kevin Van Impe of Chocolate Jacques and a rider from Lotto-Davitamon. The five leaders took an instant 1min lead as the bunch of 45 riders sat up. As a result the two big groups joined together and at the 100km marker we had five leaders and at 1min 30 sec a peloton of about 100 riders. The Chocolate Jacques team wasn’t happy with this scenario and started chasing and 15km further everything was back together. The Navigators Insurance riders kept on racing near the front in the small and windy roads. The rain started to come down and 13 riders broke away from the field. Hilton Clarke made the break again and the bunch set up behind the 13 leaders. Chocolate Jacques had 6 riders in the break and they took control after Steven Caethoven (last years winner of this race) attacked the break with 30km to go. Soon, he got one minute to the rest of the break and two more Jacques rides followed Le Boucher of Mr.Bookmaker who attacked. The race scenario didn’t change anymore and Caethoven won his first race of the season. Second and third place were for his teammates Van Impe and Eeckhout with Le Boucher in forth. Hilton Clarke came in at 6th after Geert Omloop (2003 Belgian Champ) beat him in the sprint. Jeff Louder came in approximately 18th and Mark Walters in 40th. The next race for the team is on Wednesday the 16th of March for the UCI ranked 1.1 “Nokere-Koerse”.

1. Steven Caethoven (Chocolate Jacques)
2. Kevin Van Impe (Chocolate Jacques)
3. Le Boucher (Mr. Bookmaker)
6. Hilton Clarke (Navigators Insurance)