FIC Trans’roller, international level: Julien takes the 5th place

The eighth edition of the Trans’roller was raced under sunny skies and low temperatures last Sunday. The seventh stage of the FIC 2008 ended up being an international rendezvous, with some of the best international skaters, but also more than 700 competitors at start! And Julien finally finished 5th in the bunch sprint.

It took a long time before we knew what would happen to the men's race. The first attacks were made after about 8kms of race, in the first real up hills. The pack, leaded through by the teams of RPM Poli and X-Tech-Crocs, was reduced to about 20 skaters. Severin Widmer (X-Tech-Crocs, 9 at the WIC ranking) attacked after the first sprint of Malbuisson, and opened a gap. He skated alone for more than 10kms, till the big up hill of Brey.

Behind, the main favorites, Yann Guyader (Powerslide Alessi), Diego Rosero (Rollerblade MPC World) and Matthieu Boher (RPM Poli) were carefully watching at each other. As a matter of fact, two other little groups were able to break for a while, opening a gap of about 20/25 seconds. Everything was to be done again in the Brey up hill, when Rosero attacked: the Colombian, WIC number 4, obliged the other favorites to follow him. They arrived together at the top of the hill, in a group of about 15 skaters, and stayed stuck together to play the victory. It finally seemed that this victory would have been played in a sprint, but Julien Sourisseau (RPM Poli) tried to escape one last time, 2kms away from the line. Behind, everyone was waiting. Sourisseau managed to keep a tiny but big-enough distance to take the gold. Rosero and Guyader sprinted for the podium, a few seconds after… Julien was in their wheels, taking the fifth place just behind Australian Ben Alchin (World Inline Center).

The women’s race was dominated by the duo of Bont Wheels, Nicole Begg (New-Zealand, WIC number 2) and Alexandra Vivas (Colombia, WIC number 3). They escaped with three other skaters, Jessica Gaudesaboos (Team Cado Motus), Anne-Sophie Petitprez (ASEB) and Karin Widmer (X-Tech-Crocs), but none of them were able to prevent from the Bont victory: Begg first, Vivas second, and Gaudesaboos in bronze!