Last Thursday Tim Smeenge and Roel Verhoeven started with a solid prologue in the Belgian Mountanbike Challenge (BeMC) finishing at 11th and 13th place behind winner Mathieu van der Poel. Rain and low temperatures would make the four days stage race with start and finish in La Roche to a hard edition.
After the prologue Smeenge rode a strong first stage finishing 7th on Friday. Unfortunately Verhoeven had to deal with mechanical problems, fixed it but lost a lot of time and crossed the line at 26th position. This disappointing result did not affect him as on Saturday Verhoeven was leading for a long time with van der Poel en Hans Becking and finally finished 4th. Smeenge had a good day as well and took 6th place under really severe circumstances.
The final stage over 62 kilometers on Sunday was also won by van der Poel who won the overall classification in front of Becking as well. With a 6th en 8th place Verhoeven and Smeenge once more showed their excellent shape. Overall Smeenge finished 5th and Verhoeven 8th. Next weekend both men will start in Willingen together with their KMC teammates Gerben Mos and Karen Brouwer.