Grand Prix Bati-Metallo 2014 preview

Week after famous Paris Roubaix juniors are heading again to the North of Europe for another one day race, 16th GP Bati Metallo in Belgium, region Walloon. The race is 127,6 km long and takes place on the large loop around city Pommerœul with five small circuits around the city in the finale.

Like many other races in Walloon race goes through hilly terrains near the French border with some cobbles as well. We have five climbs with some of them being ridden more than once:

GPM1 (-113km, 1260m, 4,4% avg)
GPM2 (-107km, -81km, -67km, 1250m, 2,6% avg)
GPM3 (-104km, -65km, 498m, 3,4% avg, cobbles)
GPM4 (-87km, -75km, 1000m, 4% avg, cobbles)
GPM5 (-57km, 1590m, 1,7% avg)

Profile:

As you can see the climbs aren't really hard but with the distance and numbers of climbs in short period of time the race will be really hard and will split the field for sure even tough the last fifty kilometers are mostly flat. Last year Mathias Van Gompel finished solo nine seconds ahead of Wiebren Plovie and 25 seconds ahead of small group led by Charlie Arimont.

Previous winners:

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