Jeroen van Eck and Gaia Tormena dominate in season opener

Gaia Tormena started her season with an outstanding victory at the inaugural 2020 UCI World Cup. The Italian soloed away and dropped French rider Coline Clauzure in the final round. In the men’s competition, Dutch champion Jeroen van Eck held off last year’s UCI World Cup winner Hugo Briatta and Germany’s Simon Gegenheimer in a sprint of three.

For many of the athletes, this weekend’s opening round was the occasion to pin on a race number for the first time in a year. Waregem first welcomed the UCI World Cup in 2017, and hosted the UCI World Championships last year for the dynamic and fast four-up racing format.

In the women’s elite race, Gaia Tormena has come out the strongest in the first UCI World Cup of the 2020 season, setting the fastest time in the qualifying time trials, and beating former UCI World Champion Coline Clauzure and Dutch champion Didi de Vries in the finals.

Last year’s overall winner of the UCI World Cup, Hugo Briatta was the man to beat at the season inaugural UCI World Cup. He was third in the qualifying time trial but had to satisfy with a second position in the finals.

The Dutch champion Jeroen van Eck started the day setting the fastest qualifying lap. He finished off a great day by qualifying first and winning yet again the first UCI World Cup of the season. It is the third time that Jeroen van Eck had won the first round of the season. He also claimed glory at the first round in Columbus/GA (2018) and in Barcelona (2019).

The Dutch rider finally held off European champion Hugo Briatta and Germany’s Simon Gegenheimer in a sprint of three. Lorenzo Serres had to satisfy for fourth position.

“This victory would not have been possible without the efforts I did over the last couple of months and of course City Mountainbike for staging this event during these challenging times. It was great to have competed in an amazing location – under sunny skies – here in Waregem alongside Eliminator’s best athletes and I cannot wait to defend my leader’s jersey for the next race,” said Jeroen van Eck afterwards.