The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Gent-Wevelgem (UCI Pro Tour)
The 67th edition of the Belgian semi-classic, Gent-Wevelgem, had allof the ingredients of a Hollywood movie script today in western Flanders. For the Navigators Insurance Cycling Team, this was their first specialinvitation into a UCI Pro Tour event for the restructured 2005 season. Navigators Insurance was one of only five non-Pro Tour squads to take thestart today for the 208Km race.  As expected, the large crowds wereon hand to cheer the riders, and obviously the presence of the top-20 teamsin the world was viewed as a good thing.With strong winds sweeping across the region, the 25 teams of 8-ridersstarted racing almost from the starter's whistle.  The Quick-Stepteam of race favorite Tom Boonen went right to the front to control therace with their depth of strength.  Heading out toward the coastaltown of Oostende, the pack was split by the winds into several groups,with a lead group of 12, containing the entire Quick-Step team, putting40-seconds on the 2nd group.  With a lot of motivation from behind,the entire peloton was back in 1 large group shortly after turning leftinto the head-wind along the coast.The half-way point of the race is usually a deciding factor as the ridersturn left again, and into the cross-winds of De Moeren, the tree-linedroads that zig-zag through the plains coming off the sea.  As a sectionthat usually creates a selection, the fight to be at the front is ferocious,and several casualties were the result of the fighting.  It seemedlike many minutes that the race radio was reporting crashes, and
each one looked worse than the one before.  The bad news was thata number of the fallen were race favorites and had been injured, and initialreports indicated some broken bones.The final 80Km of the race was marked by a lead group of 29 riders,with Navigators' Mark Walters taking up the charge for the men-in-blue,with Siro Camponogara, Jeff Louder and Hilton Clarke in the next group.The bad news for some of the race's favorites continued as punctures andmore crashes claimed more victims.  The disparity between the largePro Tour squads and the Pro Continental squads was evident by the factthat Walters was one of only 3 riders in the lead group that were not membersof the Pro Tour-20.The race began to get ugly as the final selections would be made onthe series of short, steep "Bergs", most notably the Kemmelberg, whichare raced over two times before the final run-in to Wevelgem.  Tocomplicate matters, the road and the pave were now slick from the raindropsthat were falling from the sky. The initial circuit saw several ridersbridge the 27-seconds to the front group, while other riders were dropped. Unfortunately for the Navigators squad, one of the riders getting poppedwas Walters.  The attacks in the front group grew more frequent asthe strongest riders and teams tested each other.An attack by Fassa-Bortolo's Juan Antonio Flecha at the top of the Kemmelgained the rider some real estate, and several others soon joined him. The 2nd group is still trying to close the gap. The 8 leaders fly withthe wind as the chase group of 6 stay about 15-seconds back.  Therest of the peloton is in shatters, and just trying to get to the finish. Approaching the finish of this "sprinter's race", Flecha looks to be thestrongest as the Spaniard continues to drive everyone else off his wheel. Nico Mattan (Davitamon-Lotto) and Baden Cooke (Francaise des Jeux) areclose behind and still fighting to close the gaps.  With 300m to go,it looks like Juan Antonio Flecha has it in the bag.  But wait, outof nowhere comes Mattan and passes Flecha in the last 100m and takes avery emotional victory.For the Navigators squad, it was a bitter-sweet day.  Hopes werehigh for a good result, but without some favorable luck, the challengeswould be large.  A strong performance, but not quite enough horse-powerto keep the squad in the final selections.  Overall, a good day ofholding our own, but better days are surely coming.1. Nico Mattan (Davitamon-Lotto)
2. Juan Antonio Flecha (Fassa-Bortolo)
3. Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Caffita)