Short drive through the golden sand dunes to conclude Roc du
Maroc
With start from the Mummy towards Merzouga, riders were given a mostly flat and 63km
short ride in front of the wheels. It could be a “Champs Elysées” ride with time for
photos and champagne, but nothing was further from the truth.
The leaders in the general classification and winners of four of the five stages want to connect the dots.
sit the i and make it a prestige ride in which they added to their supremacy from the past week
could once show. In the morning, they had secretly scouted the first few kilometres and from the
first slightly ascending strip after 3km of racing Jelle Hanseeuw and Frederik Decaesteker drew
firmly through, good for a solo with ten minutes ahead of the rest.
The last two kilometres ran for the riders through the leaden and high sand dunes of
Ergchebbi that lay enormously loose and heavy due to the drought of the past few weeks. Most of those
dunes therefore had to be taken on foot by the many participants, but redemption was
nearby and everyone could enjoy over-deserved refreshment on the terrace or in the swimming pool
of the hotel right next to the finish line.
Pascal De Kort and Johnny Goetschalckx scored their best result of the week with a second
place everywhere highlighting once again their supremacy in the grandmaster category.
The overall winners in the masters category Michael Ossieur and Stefaan Vaes ran with
teammate Arne Van den Wijngaert in at more than 11 minutes. Michiel Van Aelbroeck and Bart
Finally, Seynaeve finished fourth duo at 14 minutes.
This ends a great week with two tough opening stages, a super nice
ride through the Sahro mountains and two flat but mentally tough stages through the sandy plains and
dunes towards the arrival point in Merzouga. A total of 169 riders of the 175 started
participants the entire round out which was much more than past editions.