Cross Country Races on January 19

Last Sunday, January 19, multiple cross country running races took place. Asterix members went to three different races: the Heldense Bossen Verloscross, the Dieprijtcross in Eersel, and in the southern most corner of the Netherlands (practically Germany): the Abdijcross in Kerkrade.

Three Gauls with outstanding performances in these races tell you about their experience below!

Image

Marvin: Dieprijtcross - 1st place


On a cold but sunny Sunday afternoon, the dieprijtcross in Eersel from the Kempische cross tournament took place last weekend. While the year before the parcours consisted of only one large round, now it was split in three middle rounds with a total length of 3km. This also meant three times crossing over a large part with loose sand. This year not frozen solid as was the case last year, the sand was the most challenging part of the cross.

With somewhat fewer participants than usually, I could immediately get to the front of the field and closely followed behind the front runner. At the last sandy part of round 1 before the finish I was able to take over and - for the first time - I was the front runner in the field. Now the challenging part began: keeping the lead with 2 more rounds to go. As a short distance runner my weak part is usually the last part of the race, so I tried to run away from the field to create a gap. The last part was tough, as expected, but I had a large enough lead to run to victory!

Behind me Anne took the second place of the women, so while only 2 Asterix athletes participated here, Asterix was represented well on the podium in Eersel!

Melissa: Heldense Bossen Verloscross - 4th place

Last Sunday January 19, already the 7th race of the Limbra Cross Competition took place: the Heldense Bossen Verloscross! Three Gauls went all the way to Helden (Limburg) to join this cross and to attempt to strengthen their position on the Limbra ranking.

Hannah and Melissa started at the women’s short distance race over 3 rounds on a hilly course. Three German women also started on this 4604m-race and made the race very fast and tough. Behind two of the three German women and a Dutch woman, Melissa fought a hard one-on-one battle with a direct rival on the Limbra ranking. In the last few hundred meters, Melissa managed to speed up a last bit to eventually finish as 4th woman, only 7 seconds before her opponent!

Also Hannah experienced the race as a fast and hard one. Although she felt having to get more used to such cross distance, which is indeed quite long for a short distance, she ran readily to a nice 9th position! Thijs started simultaneously at the men’s short distance race, which was over the same course and distance as the women’s run. Also among his opponents was a fast-running German. Nevertheless, Thijs ran also good race and finished as 9th man!

In short, nice results on a tough race. Up to the next one!

Image
Image

Casper: Abdijcross - 4th place

Last Sunday, I traveled as only Gaul to the remote city of Kerkrade to compete at the Abdijcross (Abbey Crosscountry Race), the fourth race of the Dutch national crosscountry circuit. I participated in the short race over 2600 meters, where a fierce battle against the notorious hill in the course, lots of loose sand and many athletes from Tartletos at the starting line awaited me, besides a starting field including national top runners.

Having just returned from a knee injury (the cause of which is not to be mentioned), I did not expect too much of the race, and I got off to a conservative start. The loud cheers from various (former) secretaries of Asterix, however, gave me renewed energy, enabling me to overtake many runners and eventually finish in fourth place!