Danny participated in the Polar Distans, a very though long distance (“long trail”) in Northern Sweden. Danny drives Alaskan Malamutes and two Siberian Huskies.

After a very fast first leg, Danny got lost and lost a few hours before getting back on track. He finished the 160km trail, while probably he did more like 190km … what a superb achievement! Our nation’s pride in Long Trail did it once again! Congratulations Danny & Myriam!

Check out www.polardistans.com

Finally, the hard work and years of preparation payed off. Joël and Ingrid achieved the highest degree of perfection there is in purebred sleddog racing: the title of World Champion in the Open class.

The 2008 World Championship will be known as the most competitive and internationally flavoured event in history to date. With over 250 mushers from 16 countries, competition was very hard and unpredictable. Team Belgium was not swept away, quite the contrary.

Joël destroyed the competition in the O class and finished with almost 12 minutes faster overall on the second placed German Rick Göpfert. He started out with 14 dogs, and ran the last manche on Sunday with 12. He had three clean runs on a perfect trail.

Livina and Werner finished 11th and 15th respectively, in a very tough D1 class out of 24 starters. With only two dogs each, they had to push very hard to keep their ranking. Tim finished 4th in the D2 class with his 2 Alaskan Malamutes, only 53 seconds (total time) behind number 3!

Denis Deluycker was placed fourth after two days of racing in the C2 class. With his four Greenland dogs, he had a slower third run and lost one place. Freddy Guillaume ran in the C1 class with 4 Siberian Huskies, finishing 36th out of 39 finishers.

 Check out the final results here!

Congratulations to all mushers and many thanks to the handlers, sponsors & supporters!

Guy & Patrick ran the distance class (D2-2) and finished 3rd and 4th on 5 starters. 

Meanwhile, Sam & Dries are running the Iditarod. Follow the race updates here. Danny Bulens will start in the Polar Distans tomorrow.

Belgians do mushing? Sure they do!

The second manche was run in somewhat warmer conditions on fresh snow. Almost all teams ran slower than day one. Team Belgium performed well, defending their places.

Joël once again ran the fastest time and clocked of another 5 minutes better than his main opponent. Freddy lost two places finishing 36th. Livina lost one place, finishing 11th, less than one second behind the 10th place. Werner lost one place as well, finishing 16th. Both Livina and Werner ran in D1.

Denis defended his fourth place in C2 with success, closing the gap to number three to only four seconds. Tim equally kept fourth place in D2, only 30 seconds  behind number three. Both Denis and Tim maintain their options open to a podium place … to be continued!

On a beautiful trail, with excellent but warm weather, Team Belgium performed well in day one of the World Championship 2008. Given that the first race day is on a week day, there were not that much spectators to witness Team Belgium’s performance, but we had some Belgian supporters around, cheering for our athletes, and there was of course Kirst Vanmelle, shooting pictures of the teams along the trail.

As expected, Joël put down a great performance in the Open class (the largest sprint class). He started and finished with 14 dogs, and had an uneventful run. With a first place and a time more that four minutes faster that the next oponent, Joël will clearly be the favourite for the title.

In the C1 (4 dog Siberian Husky) class, Freddy Guillaume finished 34th out of 43 starters. Freddy opted for a safe and sure run, since he is still adapting to the high speeds this team puts out. We can expect an improvement for sure in the next days!

Denis Deluycker performed great as well in the C2 (4 dog heavy breed) class, finishing on a strong 4th place out of 14 starters. With only seconds to the third runner, he is eager to aim for the podium.

In the D1 class (2 dog Siberian Husky) Livina Devillers finished 10th and Werner Doms 15th out of 25 starters. In the D2 (2 dog heavy breed) class, Tim Bosseloo finished 4th out of 9, only a few seconds behind 3th and 2nd runners as well.

Overall, Team Belgium is performing great, with certainly some podium opportunity. In a World Championship with a record number of participating nations (17!) and more than 250 starters, this is a superb result to hope for!

Werner, Tim & Freddy arrived in Paldström near Gafsele with their handlers. They are staying at Joël’s place, together with German Christoph Diehl. As most habitants of the Gafsele area are (foreign) mushers, it is quite busy at the starting area of the Gafsele trail each day. We all trained on the respective distances in near to perfect conditions. Lots of snow, cold but not too cold … what more can you whish for? 

Livina & Denis are currently on the road, arriving in Sweden today and they will stay the night in Göteborg. Tomorrow, everybody will make the trip to Asarna. Team Belgium has rented the nearest house to the starting area of the World Championship.

You can check out the (impresive!) starting list for day 1 here!

“T” is for travel. In less than 17 hours from now, the second bunch of Team Belgium moves north to Gafsele, Sweden to join Joël for a 5 day training period. Thereafter, they drive up to Asarna all together to meet the rest of Team Belgium who arrives directly from Belgium.

Everything is going as planned … and the participants list has simply exploded, with an very international field of mushers.

Meanwhile, Sam & Dries are making the final preparations to enter the 2008 Iditarod, and Danny Bulens is getting ready for the challenging Polar Distans 2008 … all at the same time. Thumbs up for Team Belgium!

Joël is currently training in Gafsele, Sweden. This saturday, Tim, Werner and Freddy will join him for some last shake down runs. After a few days in Gafsele, the team moves west to Asarna to settle for the WSA WC 2008. The rest of the team, Denis & Livina, arrive two days prior race day one. Let’s all chear for Team Belgium! The competition will be hard, the participant list is growing …

A snapshot of Joël during the start in Unterjoch, one of the manches of his victorious Alpirace adventure …

During the first week of February, Joël & Livina went all the way up to Norway to train in the snow. Both Joël & Livina had a good feeling about their team’s performance. By the end of this week, Joël will participate in Haidmühle, Germany in a German Championship race. Afterwards, he drives directly to Sweden to train for the WC 2008. The rest of Team Belgium will follow him soon after!

Livina Devillers

Joël’s new truck

Joël’s team

Belgians are usually a bit reluctant to show off their potential. You might call them a bit shy … and this makes them dangerous. During major events, such as the WC 2008 in Sweden, Belgian teams often compete for a top three result, “out of the blue”. Why does this happen?

There are many reasons for sure, and each team might have their own, but to me, there is one mean reason why Belgians tend to perform unexpectedly good at championships:

Most Belgian mushers  have a long off-snow training season, before leaving for some snow training and racing. Compared to the more fortunate Scandinavians & teams based in the Alps, they can only run on snow after driving at least 1000km. This limits their snow runs. Sure, it handicaps Belgians in their sledding technique and might trigger surprises in the dog’s adaptation to a cold and harsh climate. But off-snow training makes dogs tough, because the trail is heavier, the rigs weigh a lot more, and it is simply harder to keep the motivation up. When you succeed in overcoming those disadvantages, you usually end up with a strong(er) team that can peak on snow!