Emiel Planckaert provincial cycling champion

‘I was always used to the family working atmosphere, with attention for the rider and for people, and where it was also very professional at the same time. And I do miss that now. I am disappointed in how the team has been led in recent months’, said Wim Feys.

The Tiegemberg is the executioner in this provincial championship. It is also there that it cracks in the peloton for the first time, after four of the eleven rounds. In two slides a leading group of 28 riders is formed. At the front it is mainly Basso, the team of the organization, who does a lot of work.

Some names from those 28: Four from EFC Inion, Nuyten, Vercouillie and Van Dycke, ex-Belgian champion Jakov Beirlaen, Kuypers, Lannoo, Vanderbeke, and Jo Maes, also an ex-provincial champion, all from Basso, and also and sizeable delegation from Decock-Van eyck-Van Mossel, with Vanoverberghe, Van Coppenaolle, and Emiel Planckaert. Seven pursuers still try to bridge the gap, but only at the end does a group join the 28 leaders.

Strong Emiel Planckaert

But by then the calf has already drowned. Gerben Dewinter is the first to try, but it is these two who can really create a gap: Michiel Nuytten, an Ardooienaar, from the Lead Out Acedemy, and Emiel Planckaert, the youngest member of the cycling family.

Vanderbeke of the Basso team tries to jump to the two, but then ends in the famous chasse patate. The two in front are clearly the strongest, they ride together for more than a minute on a group where their teammates paralyze the chase.

Emiel Planckaert is clearly the strongest in a battle in the front. The former elite rider is happy with his victory: ‘For a moment I dreamed of the overall victory, but once the sprint got going, I felt that there was not much more to it. That provincial title is a nice addition, and it is very nice to have a jersey again. Especially after the past few years.’