FIC/WIC Roller Marathon of Dijon: Two World champions in gold in Bourgogne
Cecilia Baena (Col/Powerslide Matter) was the favourite of the 9th edition of the Roller Marathon of Dijon. She is leading the World Inline Cup ranking, and when she races, she is always winnig! On the other side, Shane Dobbin (NZ/Cado Motus World) was looking like an outsider, considering that Yann Guyader (Fra/Powerslide Matter) or Diego Rosero (Col/Rollerblade World) were at the start of the race. But those two skaters are the ones who captured the gold in Dijon!
The big question before the race, was to know if it would be raining, or not. The grounds were already slippery 20 minutes before the start, but it was not heavilly raining at all... Any way, the athletes decided to put some rain wheels on, to be sure to take a good start: the circuit of the Allée du Parc is not that much easy when it is wet, and there are some delicate places, such as the two big round-around, or the white lines on the ground.
The rain wheels finally worked perfectly, because two laps after the start, it was quite heavilly raining again! That is the reason why the pelotons of both women and men started quite slow: the problem was to recognize the dagerous places on the circuit, and to adapt the strategy.
The women’s pace stayed together untill the end of the 19 laps, with some national stars in (such as 2008 winner in Dijon Anne-Sophie Petitprez, or Justine Halbout). But it was the international team which were controlling: Nathalie Barbotin (Powerslide/Matter) worked perfectly all the race through, for her leader Baena. The South American duo of Bont Wheels, Tamara Llorens and Alexandra Vivas, tryed to conter, with no success...
The race finally ended up in a bunch sprint, the best end for Baena. She won clearly in 1:21’45, in front of her young and promissing team mate Jana Gegner. Llorens and Vivas captured the 3rd and 4th places, whereas the first French skater, Justine Halbout (2APN Avon) took the 7th place.
The men’s course started just like the women’s one. But at the 10th lap (at about mid-race), the first attacks broke the pack. A group of 20 skaters was ahead, with the main favourites in. There were many other attacks during the nine last laps, with Shane Dobbin trying to break with insistance. The Marathon world champion is in a very good shape: he already won a FIC stage two weeks ago in Besançon, after a solo-break of 40kms!
Dobbin managed to open a gap of about 100m at two laps to the end. Behind, the peloton was not really chasing: the leaders were watching each other, waiting for a mistake... Which never came! Dobbin crossed the line victoriously after 1:06’25 of race – such as in 2005, when he first took the gold here in Dijon. His young and talented team mate, Bart Swings, managed to take the silver 3 seconds laters, in front of Felix Rijhnen (Powerslide).
What about the leader of the FIC and the WIC? Yann Guyader (Powerslide Matter) won precious points in Dijon, nevertheless: he finished at the 5th rank, one place before his main opponent for the World crown, Diego Rosero. But the story is still not finished: the next stage of the WIC in Zurich, on next week, will also be very interesting!
Shane Dobbin crossing the line victoriously (Photo: Thibaut Genevet)