Jens Debusschere and Sven Vandousselaere are twenty and twenty-one years old, respectively. Come next year they’ll both be riding for Omega Pharma – Lotto, or whatever they’ll be called in 2011, as neo-pros. High time we get to know them, right?
Jens Debusschere
We’ll start with the youngest of the two: Jens Debusschere [jɛns dəbʏsxərə] was born in Roeselare on the west side of Belgium. According to the cycling database he was thirteenth in the 1927 Tour de France, which is fairly impressive considering he was born in 1989.
The young Belgian likes the classics, as plenty of young Belgians do. Less than two weeks ago he came second in the U23 version of Paris-Roubaix, behind the inevitable Taylor Phinney. Earlier in the year he got another classic second place in de Vlaamse Pijl – Harelbeke (behind Clinton Avery of New-Zealand). He’s won the junior Ronde van Vlaanderen and is a former Belgian champ as well.
Sven Vandousselaere
Another name to tie foreign tongues in knots, Sven Vandousselare [svɛn vɑndusəla:rə] is another rider who likes the Flemish one day races. Just this year he finished on the final podium step in Ronde van Vlaanderen. He also got a fourth place in Vlaamse Pijl – Harelbeke. More impressively, he won a stage in the Tour de Normandie.
Vandousselaere isn’t slow either. Two years ago, as a young 19 year old, he managed a twentieth place in Paris-Bruxelles. He outsprinted Danilo Hondo and Kenny Dehaes. Peter Sagan has warped expectations a bit, but a 20th spot in a 1.HC race isn’t too bad at all. For the record, the 2008 Paris-Bruxelles was, inevitably, won by Robbie Mac.
Both riders will start their professional careers for Lotto on January 1, 2011.
