Haley Smith wins Belgian Mountainbike Challenge stage race

After four days of racing, Haley Smith emerged victorious at the Belgian Mountainbike Challenge (BeMC).

Billing itself as the “The hardest MTB stage race in the Benelux,” BeMC stages averaged over 2,000 metres of vertical elevation gain per stage. With the highest point in Belgium being 694m above sea level, that meant lots of steep, punchy climbing on all four days of racing.

Haley Smith (Maxxis Factory Racing) won the elite women’s UCI category, finishing with a perfect sweep of all four stages. Bettina Janas of Germany and Joyce Vanderbeken of Belgium finished second and third overall.

On the men’s side of BeMC’s UCI category, Andrew L’Esperance (Maxxis Factory Racing) battled back from a first-stage deficit to finish second overall. L’Esperance placed third on the second and third stages before winning the final day’s stage. That put him up into second on GC behind race winner Frans Claes. Tristan Nortje rounded out the overall podium in third.