Place 22 - Sven Vandousselaere

Sven Vandousselaere

Belgium

29.08.1988

 

Type of Rider: Sprinter, Clasics

Biggest Success: 3rd Ronde van Vlaanderen U23

Team/Club 2010: Jong Vlaanderen - Bauknecht

Stagiaire: -

Team 2011: OmegaPharma - Lotto

Best Mock List-Ranking: new

Web: svenvandousselaere.be

 

Sven Vandousselaere was once, considering only wins, the seasons most successful rider. This being 2006, his last junior season when he scored wins at will, is some time ago however. This consistency was missing with “Doussie” (his nickname) in the espoirs ranks a long time. He scored wins once in a while, but it is only since the end of his U23 time that Vandousselaere was that dangerous again. The fair reward is the jump to place 22 in the Mock List.

 

As you can assume by his name – Vandousselaere is Fleming. Being a soccer player in the beginning, “Doussie” rides the bike since he is 12 years old. Already with the Nieuwelingen, the youth category, Vandousselaere is a victory guarantor (2004 most successful Nieuweling) and he continued this with the juniors. Altogether the Fleming in 2006 stands 19 times on the highest rank of the podium. Among a diversity of stage wins in international junior races (Driedaagse van Axel, Kroz Istru, Giro della Toscana, Ster van Zuid-Limburg etc.), especially his victory ast the junior edition of the Tour of Flanders, that “Doussie” won out of a small group, stands out. In the shorter junior stage races without major mountains, Vandousselaere often manages to finish among the best in the general classification. He finishes the season as fourth in the Junior World Cup.

 

In his first U23 year the Fleming (1,81m & 71kg) in 2007 joins Jong Vlaanderen, the Topsport Vlaanderen farm team, where he stays until the end of his espoir time. In the Volta a Lleida (2.2) in Spain he manages to score his first pro win on the second stage, three days later the victory in the team time trial follows. This was the only screamer that year. Without an UCI victory but with more steady performances Vandousselaere presented himself in 2008. In races like the Tour de Normandie (2.2) or the Tour de Bretagne (2.2) he sprints for wins without success, but he is consistently among the first ten. In his home race through the province Antwerpen Doussie wins a stage, in Paris – Brussel (1.HC) he muscles in with the big dogs and finishes 20th.

 

In 2009 Vandousselaere reports back with a stage win and a third place overall in the Tour du Loir-et-Cher (2.2). A sixth place in the GP Zottegem (1.1) and a ninth in Putte – Kapellen (1.1) show that the Fleming knows how to stage himself more often in real pro races. At the Belgium Championships he wins the bronze medal by winning the sprint of the chasing group. In cyclocross events you rarely see Vandousselaere after all – even though his big idol is Sven Nys.

 

The last U23 year was to be due. Via the the Vlaamse Pijl (1.2), where Doussie ran in a fourth place, he went once again to France that often proved to be a promising terrain for the Fleming. And it did once again: during the fifth stage of the Tour de Normandie (2.2) he spent all day in a group with Julien Guay and Jan Barta, that was able to rescue one minute to the line. Barta was rewarded the yellow jersey, but Vandousselaere sprinted past his two colleagues to win the stage. A perfect preparation for the Ronde van Vlaanderen U23 (1.NC), where in the end only breakaway Marko Kump and – in the sprint for second place – Michael Matthews were faster than him. John Degenkolb or Ramunas Navardauskas Doussie was able to leave behind.

 

Already in June the joyful message that Vandousselare will celebrate his pro debut in 2011 with OmegaPharma was spread. The combination of the pro with the most annual victories over the last two years, André Greipel, and the serial winner at the youth and juniors, Sven Vandousselaere, promises the end of the victory recession in the Belgian team. Aside of the role as a sprinting hope Vandousselaere will strengthen the classics fraction to come close to his big goal: the podium of the Tour of Flanders, which he already climbed as a junior.

 

Nominated by gardener and virtualprofit, written by gardener, translated by ogkempf