COMMUNIQUE DE PRESSE
Rennes again! The second stage of the WIC, and beautiful winners!
Communiqué du 27/04/2009
Once again, it has rained in Rennes during the marathon. But the wet grounds cannot be the main actors of the international race. Far from that weather “incident”, the week-end in the capital city of Brittany was, once again, a big feast for skating!
Women’s race: the importance of the good wheels…
The main event of the week-end was of course the marathons of Sunday afternoon. In the first race, the women’s one, the rain appeared to have a major role: it was still sunny and dry few seconds before the gun, but some threatening clouds did appear soon. It obliged some girls to switch from “dry wheels” to “wet wheels”. It is now evidence: the sticking-to-the-ground wheels are magical…
Quick after the start, it was really raining, a first group was going away – with the good wheels on their skates. There was the Bont trio from the Antipodes Alexandra Vivas, Tamara Llorens and Nicole Begg, and the French duo Nathalie Barbotin and Lucie Peruzzetto (Powerslide). Close after, a chasing group with Laetitia Le Bihan (RPM Poli) and Carine Talbourdet (Lamballe) was never able to come back.
The last suspense was to know who would have won the race. The Bont squad seemed to be in a good position, with one sprinter (Begg) and two strong finishers (Llorens and Vivas). The sprint was played between Vivas and Barbotin, and the first one was disqualified for a fault on the second one. But Begg and Llorens passed and captured the victory, in front of Barbotin, in 1:21! Peruzzetto finished at the fourth rank.
Men’s race: Nicolas chance
It was the same problematic at the men’s start: which wheels would have been the good ones? It was no longer raining, but the skies were still threatening… And the biggest part of the pace took the start with raining wheels also. A good option indeed: in the first lap, the rain appeared again, enough to make the grounds wet again. But as the race was going on, the blue skies won definitively.
After many attempts, a strong group managed to break ahead, with leaders such as Massimiliano Presti (Luigino), Yann Guyader (Powerslide) and Alexis Contin (Rollerblade) in, but also outsiders such as Severin Widmer (Luigino), Nicolas Iten (Rollerblade) and Julien Despaux (Rollerblade). The race in Rennes is longer than the other ones (50kms), which often makes a little but important difference.
In that case, a solo-and-strong skater, Nicolas Iten, tried to go alone from this first pack, two laps before the end. His opponents were watching themselves, so that the Swiss was able to dig a gap of about two minutes! He crossed the line victoriously, and won another big WIC race, after Seoul, Berlin and Engadin those past two years! Yann Guyader won the group sprint, in front of Massimiliano Presti: they finished second and third of a race close in 1:25 for the winner and 1:26:30 for the followers.
Women’s race: the importance of the good wheels…
The main event of the week-end was of course the marathons of Sunday afternoon. In the first race, the women’s one, the rain appeared to have a major role: it was still sunny and dry few seconds before the gun, but some threatening clouds did appear soon. It obliged some girls to switch from “dry wheels” to “wet wheels”. It is now evidence: the sticking-to-the-ground wheels are magical…
Quick after the start, it was really raining, a first group was going away – with the good wheels on their skates. There was the Bont trio from the Antipodes Alexandra Vivas, Tamara Llorens and Nicole Begg, and the French duo Nathalie Barbotin and Lucie Peruzzetto (Powerslide). Close after, a chasing group with Laetitia Le Bihan (RPM Poli) and Carine Talbourdet (Lamballe) was never able to come back.
The last suspense was to know who would have won the race. The Bont squad seemed to be in a good position, with one sprinter (Begg) and two strong finishers (Llorens and Vivas). The sprint was played between Vivas and Barbotin, and the first one was disqualified for a fault on the second one. But Begg and Llorens passed and captured the victory, in front of Barbotin, in 1:21! Peruzzetto finished at the fourth rank.
Men’s race: Nicolas chance
It was the same problematic at the men’s start: which wheels would have been the good ones? It was no longer raining, but the skies were still threatening… And the biggest part of the pace took the start with raining wheels also. A good option indeed: in the first lap, the rain appeared again, enough to make the grounds wet again. But as the race was going on, the blue skies won definitively.
After many attempts, a strong group managed to break ahead, with leaders such as Massimiliano Presti (Luigino), Yann Guyader (Powerslide) and Alexis Contin (Rollerblade) in, but also outsiders such as Severin Widmer (Luigino), Nicolas Iten (Rollerblade) and Julien Despaux (Rollerblade). The race in Rennes is longer than the other ones (50kms), which often makes a little but important difference.
In that case, a solo-and-strong skater, Nicolas Iten, tried to go alone from this first pack, two laps before the end. His opponents were watching themselves, so that the Swiss was able to dig a gap of about two minutes! He crossed the line victoriously, and won another big WIC race, after Seoul, Berlin and Engadin those past two years! Yann Guyader won the group sprint, in front of Massimiliano Presti: they finished second and third of a race close in 1:25 for the winner and 1:26:30 for the followers.
