Equipe Tricolore shuts out other nations of all medals
Clément Venturini took the first title of the 2011 Cyclocross World Champions, held in St Wendel, Germany. The Frenchman won the junior’s race ahead of two compatriots, brothers Loïc and Fabien Doubey. The dominators of the the season, Belgian Laurens Sweeck and Dutchman Danny Van Poppel, were beaten and left without a medal. Sweeck finished in fifth place, while Van Poppel abandoned the race.
A smiling Venturini was greeted by a throng of French supporters as he left from the podium ceremony after the race. “I still haven’t realized that I am World Champion,” he said. Venturini had an aggressive game plan. “I wanted to go out fast and not wait on the other teams. I believed that I could win the whole time.”
Venturini was with Diether Sweeck, the brother of Laurens, in lap two. They held a small gap over a six-man group when Sweeck flatted. “I never looked back,” said Venturini. Late in the race he found out that he had no serious chasers. “I was told that my two compatriots were behind me, but I thought they would be others.” Only when he turned around one time he saw that the Doubey brothers were riding by themselves.
For Loïc, it was not a given to be that far up front. “I crashed in lap one.” A big pileup had brought multiple riders down. But Loïc stayed calm. “I came back lap by lap. When I saw my brother I knew I was close to the front.”
The duo came together into the finishing straight on the track in St Wendel, but did not sprint for silver. “Loïc told me at the top of the final hill that I could have silver and we wouldn’t sprint for it,” Fabien said. All three said multiple times that the most important was the team aspect and they certainly raced that way.
At the finish line, the Doubey brothers dropped their bikes on the ground and the three hugged each other. Fabien had shown that team feeling in the race as well. “When Clément was up front, I covered the moves by riders who were trying to get back to him.” That spirit lifted the French to the best result a nation could dream off.
Things did not look so rosy in early January, when Venturini finished 18th in the national championships. “I really wanted to quit then. But I picked myself up and I wanted to show everyone.” His final result, an 11th place in the Hoogerheide World Cup race, was also outside the top ten. “But that is not the worst, it takes the pressure off a little bit.”
Venturini admits he has some problems with pressure, which makes his results inconsistent. “I am anxious sometimes. It is the same at school. But then when it really counts I can pull myself together.”
He also had a problem with a specific corner on the tough parcours in St Wendel, which the organizers had made worse over night. After the training on Friday they did not smoothen out the course again. The frozen tire tracks made the descents and tight turns especially tricky on an otherwise sunny day. “There was this corner where I had trouble every lap,” Venturini said. “I should have walked it but I didn’t want to.”
What the trio’s future will be like is unknown, but it seems to off-road. Venturini is nuts about cyclocross. “I prefer it over the road, even though it is complimentary. But end of July I am happy to start cyclocross. I’ll do that 80- percent of the time, with 20 percent road riding.” The Doubey brothers are mountain bikers, racing for a French team. “We will do the MTB World Cup season,” Loïc said.
1 VENTURINI Clément FRANCE 0:44:31
2 DOUBEY Fabien FRANCE +00:15
3 DOUBEY Loic FRANCE +00:15
4 SKALA Jakub CZECH REPUBLIC +00:36
5 SWEECK Laurens BELGIUM +00:37
6 VANTHOURENHOUT Michael BELGIUM +00:45
7 ZUMSTEIN Dominic SWITZERLAND +00:51
8 HERKLOTZ Silvio GERMANY +01:09
9 NIPL Vojtech CZECH REPUBLIC +01:18
10 GODRIE Stan NETHERLANDS +01:29
11 FORSTER Lars SWITZERLAND +01:34
12 LEHMANN Julian GERMANY +01:38
13 LIENHARD Fabian SWITZERLAND +01:41
14 VAN TICHELT Yorben BELGIUM +01:41
15 PEETERS Daniel BELGIUM +01:47