Bart Swings and Guo Dan dominate the 2015 Roller Marathon of Dijon

Once again, the Roller Marathon of Dijon hosted high level races for its 15th edition with, as the climax, the international marathon of the World Inline Cup unquestionably dominated by the champions Bart Swings (Belgium) and Guo Dan (China)...

Par alfathor
Publié le 15 juin 2015 - Mis à jour le 3 novembre 2020 - 5981 Lectures - 0 commentaire(s)

Results of the races of the 15th edition

The 15th edition of the Roller Marathon of Dijon was spared the forecasted rain and storm, for the greatest pleasure of the 1200 participants expected in the Allées du Parc, in the heart of the city. On the program: The Master World Championships of Marathon, the French Cup of Roller Marathons and the World Inline Cup…

U40 Men: The French-Italian clash

The French and Italians were the main protagonists of the race. The French repeatedly tried their luck and Vincent Esnault’s endurance made the difference.

The Italians are hot on the French’ heels during the whole start of the race. Mathieu Miquel and Stéphane Pineau worked really hard. In the end, Sylvain Cabotin broke away with a skater of the Squadra Azzurra, Paolo Nannini. The latter couldn’t keep up with the pace and the French found himself alone. Behind, the Italiens were chasing with Marco Nuvolara while the French were keeping their eyes open. Vincent Esnault finally caught up on his team mate. They skated together until a few laps before the arrival. Vincent Esnault then took off and finished solo with a determined pace. The same scenario as the previous edition! If we get our counts right, it must be his 3rd title.

Stéphane Pineau regulated the pack sprint and finished 3rd in front of the Italian Marco Nuvolara, 4th. Mathieu Miquel took the 5th place. Hats off to the French!

U40 Women: Switzerland at the sprint

The U40 Women’s category saw the Swiss Daniela Sprenger impose herself at the sprint against two skaters of the French Team: Angélique Lejeune (formerly Pointard) and Caroline Jean. While Caroline had already had the honor of wearing the national jersey, it was a first for Angélique who broke it in with a well-deserved silver medal!

U50 Men: Spain a cut above

The 40-50 saw the Spanish Eugenio Landete Marquina (Ciudad del Turia In Gravity) win with brio in solo, crossing the final line 1min30sec before his followers. The French tried to catch up, especially with David Bernardin who worked very hard for it, and Erwan Le Corre, but without success.

In truth, only the French actually took the initiative of chasing. The sprint of the pack was regulated by Jean-Stéphane Sierra, who got his second world medal. He finished in front of the Italian Michele Cicognani and another French used to Top-3’s, Frédéric Techer of the Reunion, 4th.

U50 Women: Claudia Pechstein again

The former ice skater German Claudia Pechstein (Powerslide / SCC Skating) is a regular competitor of the Dijon competition. She imposed herself once more after a long breakaway. 14 minutes behind, Gaelle Duplenne (Team France / REC Roller) won the followers’ sprint in front of Karen Telling (Netherlands) and Karina Weindorf (Germany). Karine Malle finished 5th, back in the pack after having skated solo for a good while.

U60 Men: A decisive sprint

The U60 Men’s category was one of the fullest of the 2015 edition with close to 70 skaters at the start. the pack skated together for most of the race. In the end, the Italian Giuseppe Cortese won the sprint in front of his compatriot Paolo Campi. Albert Bakker completed the Top-3 for the Netherlands.

U60 Women: Desiana Canniatti crowned at last

The Italian Desiana Canniatti can enjoy her title! After having finished 3rd or at the foot of the podium several times, she finally managed to impose herself in front of the German Uten Enger and the Swiss Conny Strub. The French Claudie Duval missed the Top-3 by a whisker and finished 4th.

O60 Men: An Italian double

Skating keeps you young. 40 skaters took the start of the race in the O60 Men’s category… And the race was played at the sprint. The Italian Ennio Mumeni made the difference against his compatriot Giuseppe Presti (the father of the two champions Luca and Massimiliano). Benny Orloff completed the Top-3, to the great sorrow of the French Elhadi Beddiaf (the father of Nolan Beddiaf) who gave his all during the race.

O60 Women: Germany dominates the debates

In the O60 Women’s category, the German Barbara Esser dominated the race. She broke away and finished with a one-minute lead over her compatriot Marion Althoff, and in front of the French Christiane Buquant, 3rd. The latter told us at the arrival that she had skated better thanks to her two opponents.

Semi-Marathon

As it is often the case, the Juniors made the difference on the semi-marathon. In the Women’s Alicia Delhommais (Asphalte), Zoé Remy (AM Sports) and Sara Bassanetti (Roller Skating Launacais) imposed themselves at the scratch. On the men’s side, the context was hardly different: The junior Antoine Vidal (Roller Skating Launacais) won in front of another junior, Mattias Gil (Saint-Etienne Roller) and the senior Grégoire Leclerc (Dijon Roller Sports).

Men’s Marathon: Bart Swings makes it 4

A lot of twists and turns were expected for the key-race of this 15th edition of the Roller Marathon of Dijon. In the end, Bart Swings (Powerslide Matter) nipped the race in the bud. After a few demonstrations of force by his team mate and compatriot Ferre Spruyt at the start of the race, Bart broke away after a few laps with his former team mate, Ewan Fernandez (EO Skates).

The Belgian and the French cooperated well, and the pack didn’t skate fast enough to catch up on them. The big teams were represented in the breakaway, the work fell to the outsiders. And Joey Mantia got stuck with it! The American launched a few powerful attacks, but too spaced out and only little followed. In the lead, Bart and Ewen were skating hard, completing their laps with an average of 43 kph. When a new breakaway escaped from the pack, the high-class team mates of Powerslide linked up.

Not satisfied to have widened the gap, Bart tried to get rid of Ewen several times. Twice without success… before the 3rd and good one! Ewen resisted the Belgian machine. He finally managed to stay a handful of seconds behind the master of distance.
Bart crossed the finish line with a comfortable lead, getting his 4th victory in Dijon. Behind him, Ewen finished 2nd. The pack fought with a sprint a few minutes later, Peter Michael completed the Top-3, Joey Mantia finished 4th and the French Yann Guyader 5th.

Women’s Marathon: The imperial Guo Dan

Women’s races are sometimes monotonous. The 15th anniversary of Dijon was treated with fireworks from the Chinese Guo Dan! The former protégée of Christophe Audoire imposed her pace, shaking the pack with her accelerations. She finally got the better of her opponents’ resistance. She went solo and was not to be caught back up. Despite her very compact built, the Chinese has a skating technique and an amplitude that would make many male competitors green with envy. She broke away solo at a higher pace than that of the men’s pack! The least to say is that she didn’t have serious opponents in this race. Juliette Pouydebat told us that she admired her technique.

A few minutes after the victory of the Chinese, the remaining places of the Top-3 were played at the sprint. Juliette Pouydebat (Pibrac RS) managed to snake in and out to the front and battled with the German Katharina Rumpus (Powerslide Matter), the French was close to seizing the Silver! However, Juliette is well placed at the general ranking of the World Inline Cup. After her victory in Rennes in front of the Polish Aleksandra Goss, she should be found in Ostrava (Czech Republic) for a new stage of the World Inline Cup!