Just like in the pros, where despite the season starting in January, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne signals the real start of the season in Europe, the same applies for U23 racing. Plenty of U23s have begun their seasons already racing with their trade teams, but the arrival of the Gent-Wevelgem/Kattekoers signals the beginning of the Nations Cup and the rest of the top U23 events. While races like the U23 Giro and the Italian Classics allow riders to race in their trade teams, the Nations Cup dictates you ride for your country.
Startlist & What Happened Last Year
While some riders are missing from the startline due to racing commitments elsewhere, with some U23s racing at the Tour de Normandie, others at races like Coppi e Bartali, the 2019 Kattekoers still has a very strong startlist
Last year’s race was, as always, predictably unpredictable. The racing was very aggressive and riders finished the race in small groups. In the end, a despite several attacks, it was all down to a big sprint, where Ziga Jerman toppled Jake Stewart and Mat Burgeaudeau. Both Ziga and Jake are back this year.
The race has a lot of very strong teams here and as mentioned earlier, a lot of top U23s have made the trip to Ypres for this race. However, some squads do stand out from others while it feels like one man shows for some other teams. Denmark and Britain are the strongest teams on paper. The Brits are very young but Stewart is perfect for this race, and Tom Pidcock’s all world talent means he cannot be ruled out, even if this is his racing debut on the road for 2019. Rob Scott is also a great wildcard and is going well. The Danes are without Mikkel Bjerg and Mathias Norsgaard, but still have four cards still to play in Andreas Kron, Andreas Stokbro, Jakob Egholm and Julius Johansen. Stokbro is the best suited to this race, but Kron is always good here and Johansen looks in very good form. Austria, Norway, Holland and Luxembourg are also looking strong. Austria have no real specialists for this kind of race, but with all three Gamper brothers, Markus Wildauer and Tobias Bayer they have a team ready to attack. The Norwegians have an in-form duo of Tobias Foss and first year Soren Waerenskjold, although Foss may not find this event hard enough for his liking. The Dutch have five great attackers in Ide Schelling, David Dekker, Jarno Mobach, Edo Maas and Maikel Zijlaard, although there is no question Paris-Tours winner Marten Kooistra will be missed. The team’s main aim will be to break the race up via attacks, anything to avoid a sprint, even if Dekker is fast in a sprint. Luxembourg two cards to play here. Michel Ries is probably not going to win, but will be a great helper, whilst Pit Leyder has cobbled pedigree and has a fast finish that will ensure no one wants to take the U23 National RR champ to the line.
The in-form rider here is Niklas Markl, and with Georg Zimmermann with him, Germany have two cards. Ziga Jerman returns on a weaker Slovenian team than before, but his sprint and strength mean he is still going to be a factor here. Alexys Brunel leads a rather weak French team, but he has proven before that he is amazing on the cobbles and will get help from Maxence Moncassin. James Fouche leads the New Zealand team, whilst Reto Muller is Switzerland’s best card. The talented Filip Maciejuk leads Poland, Petr Rikunov leads Russia and an Italian squad filled with some smaller names is probably led by Gregorio Ferri. Karl-Patrick Lauk leads Estonia.
The Flandrian (Van Wilder, De Pestel, Herregodts and Beullens) and Wallonian (Castrique, Pestiaux) teams are also stronger than usual with cards to play. They will not work on the front, but will seek to place riders into moves. Belgium are looking to be unusually weak, with Jens Reynders their only rider not in his first two years at this level. His form is good but he has not proven he can do it on the big U23 stage yet. His first-year teammate for this race Xandres Vervloessem is racing to learn and has no pressure. It has been three years since they won this race, and I do not see the drought ending this weekend.
The Parcours
14km shorter than last year, the race is 174km long and starts and finishes in the town of Ypres, made famous by World War II. It features one flat cobbled section and six bergs.
The first cobbled section comes at 27.5km in and is the Beauvordestraat. There is then a lull in the action until 94km raced, when the Baneberg is tackled for the first time. The climb is just 1.3km at 5%, but maxes out at 9%. Just 8km later and it is on to the Kemmelberg, the climb synonymous with the elite edition of Gent-Wevelgem. The riders tackle this climb from the South, which is the shortest side at just 1.4km. However, it averages 7.8% and maxes out at 22%. There are then just 4km from the top of the Kemmelberg to the top of the Monteberg, which is a 900m long climb at 4.9%, maxing out at 7%.
There isn’t much time to settle after that, as the peloton goes into the feed zone and then endures some lumpy roads where attacks could go or gaps could be built on.
The riders then make their way back to the climbs again, tackling the same three bergs as before in the same order: Baneberg with 39.5km to go, Kemmelberg with 31.5km to go and Monteberg with 27km to go. After the final descent from the Monteberg, the road back to Ypres ranges from slightly downhill to flat roads.
Whilst there is less to race this year, there is also further from the final trio of climbs to the finish than there was last year. Given U23 racing is so aggressive anyway this is not as much of an issue as it would be in the pros, but all the same this edition of the race does seem to suit the sprinters more than the 2018 edition did. But the real outcome will be decided on the road on Sunday
The Favourites
Winner Candidates: Niklas Markl (Germany), Jake Stewart (Great Britain), Julius Johansen (Denmark)
Podium Contenders: Ziga Jerman (Slovenia), Andreas Stokbro (Denmark), Andreas Kron (Denmark)
Outsiders: James Fouche (New Zealand), Soren Waerenskjold (Norway), Alexys Brunel (France)
Joker: Tom Pidcock (Great Britain)
After winning the prologue at the Istrian Spring Trophy and the opening European round of the U23 season, German sprinter Niklas Markl is the top favourite here. A sprinter who recently told U23 Cycling Zone he could do so much more, Markl should have no problem getting over the hills and is fast at the end of a hard day. In Georg Zimmermann and Jonas Rutsch he has two in-form teammates to help keep things together. Markl has earned top dog status, lets see if he can improve on it.
Jake Stewart has had a much quieter start to the season, with the Groupama FDJ Conti rider racing just 1 UCI race day so far, so there are questions on his form versus elite competition. But Stewart was relatively quiet pre Gent-Wevelgem last season before taking a breakthrough podium. A stronger team than last season undoubtedly tips the race further in his favour. A year wiser, this race is within Stewart’s grasp in 2019.
Dane Julius Johansen looked very good as he launched a stinging attack at the Youngsters Coast Challenge last weekend, despite the fact the race was not really hard enough for his liking. As per usual, the Danes have multiple cards, which they will undoubtedly try to lever to their advantage. Johansen has great power and can solo to wins, but is also fast in a finish, especially in a smaller group after a hard day. His road opportunities may be limited this season due to Olympic qualification on the track, so this race is one he will want to win.
Defending champion Ziga Jerman can perhaps feel hard done by that he is ‘only’ a podium contender. Jerman and Stewart are very similar riders, and are even trade teammates, but the fact of the matter is that Jerman’s Slovenia team is not as strong as the three teams of the winner candidates. In a big sprint he is instantly elevated to a winner candidate, but if things get hard his team may struggle to respond. A podium would be considered a successful attempt at defending his title.
Next up are two more from the elite Danish team. Andreas Kron should probably not be a winner candidate due to his teammates having better pedigree, but this race belongs to him. In his last two attempts he has finished 6th and 4th. A podium is achievable, but with the team tactics, a win could also be there. On paper Andreas Stokbro is the best suited Dane to this race. He has cobbled pedigree (5th in Flanders last season), and is very fast in a sprint. He will prefer a harder race to try and remove the few riders on this startlist who are quicker than he is, but a top result is expected from Stokbro here.
James Fouche is another who has a team who may struggle to be with him in the final, but his form is evident for all to see. Like last season, the elite New Zealand RR champ started his European season in Portugal, where he was 5th in the Arrabida Classic on dirt roads. Then he spent some days in the break owning his form in Alentejo, yet he still managed to win the KOM jersey. A rider with Classics potential, Fouche should be there or there abouts on Sunday in Ypres.
The Classics ability of Soren Waerenskjold are already becoming clear to see. 5th in the Youngsters Coastal Challenge was a brilliant start to life as an U23, and if he can hang around, his finishing speed makes him a candidate for a top result. Having the in-form and experienced Tobias Foss on the Norwegian team is also going to be a big advantage. The big question will be if he can raise his level when competing against the best in the U23 world, but if he can survive the race and makes it to the finish in the front, a very nice result in his first Nations Cup race is achievable.
Alexys Brunel’s France team is weaker than it has been recent editions of this race, but Brunel himself should have no issues with this parcours. A rider who has performed well in Flanders, Liege and Roubaix, the U23 French ITT rider has genuine Classics pedigree. He has been good here before too, with 15th two seasons ago. Furthermore, Brunel is a very good time triallist and has been in the top ten at the European Champs in each of his two seasons as an U23 so far. If he gets a gap, he is very hard to pull back, as we saw in last year’s U23 Liege. Watch Brunel very carefully on Sunday.
The joker in this race is Tom Pidcock. An all-world talent, this is his opening road race of the 2019 season, after a winter racing the CX bike rather successfully. Pidcock is a massive Classics talent, but this is his first real shot at the U23 Classics, after only racing Roubaix last season. The other question is his form. If he takes after fellow CX star Wout Van Aert, he will be very good already here. If not, he may work for Stewart and possibly Scott, whilst building for Flanders and Liege a few weeks away. No one debates his talent, but we will find out his form come Sunday.
U23 Cycling Zone 