Season started with Belgium opening weekend

With the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday and the Omloop van het Hageland a day later, the classic opening weekend in Belgium was this weekend. For Team Coop โ€“ Hitec Products, it were the two first races of the season. Nine riders of the team were racing. Three of them doing a double program and three riders that made their racing debut for the team. It was a good start of the season.

In the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Ingvild Gaskjenn was the first rider at the finish from Team Coop โ€“ Hitec Products. She had hoped for a bit more than becoming 52nd, but that had its reason. โ€œI felt really good, but got technical problems into the Muur van Geraardsbergenโ€, Ingvild tells. โ€œI finished the race only on one gear, so I couldnโ€™t follow the front group.โ€

Debut
On Sunday there were new chances and one of the riders to make her debut was Nicole Steigenga. โ€œThe beginning of the race was very hectical and it was difficult to find each otherโ€, the Dutch rider says about the Omloop van het Hageland. โ€œBut halfway, we were able to find each other better and ride more to the front together. I myself really had to get used to looking for a different shirt, as I changed teams.โ€

Ingvild also noticed that it was a had race; โ€œToday was just really hard and hectic. We rode well for a long time. We were supposed to go for me, but I did not have the legs, so then we changed the plan and Nicole sprinted to a good result.โ€ Behind winner Marta Bastianelli, Nicole finished in the 20th spot.

Morale from the new team bus
After the finish Nicole was happy with her result. โ€œI actually didnโ€™t expect that I would have this shape already, but it went pretty well. Since I know what it is and I can still get better, I hope that this race will help me improve a bit in the coming week. Hopefully we can also improve our working together then. One thing is for sure; the new team bus also gave me more morale today.โ€

Photo top: Sportfoto.nl

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Mathew Mitchell
Mathew Mitchellhttp://procyclinguk.com
My name is Mathew Mitchell, 30-something from Staffordshire, UK. Over the last few years, I've got more and more into cycling, from the first innocent Sportive events to Audaxes, Go-Races, British Cycling racing, Time Trials and now Cyclocross.

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