Wout van Aert continued his excellent run of success when he beat his archrival from the U23 ranks, Mathieu van der Poel, in an exciting duel to win the Bpost Bank Trofee race in Hamme-Zogge. Having lost ground due to a mistake in the final turn, he launched a long sprint and managed to pass the Dutchman just metres before the line while Sven Nys finished fourth to defend his overall lead.

 

With wins in the prestigious Koppenbergcross and World Cup race in Koksijde, Wout van Aert has had an amazing success in his first year riding against the professionals. Today he confirmed that he is currently the best cyclo-cross rider in the world when he won the Bpost Bank Trofee race in Hamme-Zogge.

 

However, it was no easy feat for the Belgian to keep his streak alive as he seemed to be unable to make a difference in the first part of the race. Despite his many accelerations on the front of the peloton, it was still a fairly large group that entered the penultimate lap to decide the race.

 

Philip Walsleben exploited a hesitation in the group to launch a wily attack and he quickly opened a gap of around 10 seconds. While the main favourites looked at each other, the German champion seemed to be riding away with the win and he still had a significant advantage when he started the final lap.

 

However, on the finishing straight, van Aert’s teammate Jens Adams sacrificed himself completely for his captain, accelerating hard to set the Belgian up for an attack. As they exited the paved area, van Aert hit the gas hard and only van der Poel was able to match his speed.

 

With van der Poel taking over the pace-setting, the pair quickly caught Walsleben and as they now had a big gap over their chasers, it was clear that they were all going to finish on the podium. Van der Poel continued to set the pace and he did an excellent work to prevent van Aert from passing him.

 

Van der Poel seemed to have taken the win when van Aert made a costly mistake in the final turn and the Dutchman entered the finishing straight with a small gap over his rival. He rode full gas down the paved road and was about to take his second big pro victory.

 

However, van Aert had gone back up to speed and with an impressive acceleration, he managed to catch and pass van der Poel just metres before the line. The Dutchman sat down, shaking his head, before he rolled across the line to take second. Walsleben held onto third.

 

In the chase group, the experienced riders had to see the youngsters ride away with the spoils and they were left to sprint for fourth place. Here Sven Nys proved that he is getting back into form after his illness when he beat yesterday’s winner Kevin Pauwels. As his nearest rival Klaas Vantornout finished further back, the Belgian extended his lead in the overall Bpost Bank Trofee standings which is decided by time instead of points. He now leads Pauwels by 1.58 while van Aert moved into third.

 

The series continues on Saturday in the GP Hasselt which is the only race in one of the major series next weekend.

 

How it unfolded:

Wout van Aert showed his intentions right from the beginning, beating Lars van der Haar in a tough sprint to be the first rider to exit the paved start/finishing straight. With Kevin Pauwels, Tom Meeusen, van der Haar, Mathieu van der Poel, Sven Nys, Klaas Vantornout and Sven Vanthourenhout on his wheel, he set a hard pace already on the first lap, with many riders losing contact in the early phase.

 

Whil van Aert set the pace, a split was created behind those 8 riders who escaped to form a very strong front group. Just before the first passage of the finish line, Jens Adams latched onto the back of that group while Rob Peeters led a small chase group a few seconds behind.

 

Van Aert, Pauwels and Meeusen were about to get a small gap when the former made a big mistake that saw him drop off the pace. Instead, he drifted to the back of the group while Nys brought the front group back together.

 

Meeusen was now riding on the front and he won the intermediate sprint ahead of Pauwels and Nys to score 15 important bonus seconds for the overall classification. Moments later, Pauwels took over the pace-setting in the group that had been joined by the second group wit, among others, Peeters and Bart Aernouts.

 

Pauwels led the front group across the line at the end of the second lap before leaving the pace-setting duties to Vanthourenthout. He spent a few moments on the front and then van der Poel made a strong acceleration to take the first position.

 

The young Dutchman led the group for the entire lap but no one seemed to be troubled by his pace. As they slowed down a bit on the finishing straight, van Aert finally saw his opportunity to move back into his preferred position on the front and he started to put his rivals under pressure.

 

Van der Haar took over from the youngster and his pace whittled the front group down to just the Dutch champion, van Aert, Meeusen and Nys. At the next passage of the line, they were a few seconds ahead of Pauwels, Vantornout, Vanthourenhout and Adams.

 

Van der Haar looked around to realize what damage he had done and he immediately reacted by upping the pace a bit more. Meanwhile, Pauwels knew he had to react and moved straight to the front of the chase group, trying to get back in contention.

 

Pauwels shows his class by dropping his companions and bridging the gap to the leaders on his own. Van Aert was now back on the front, making sure that the chase group – which had been joined by van der Poel – had a hard time getting back in contention.

 

Impressively, Adams was the next rider to bridge the gap, making the junction just as they hit the finishing straight. As the pace went down, he made an immediate attack and as his teammate van Aert slowed down, he quickly got a big gap.

 

The slower pace meant that Vanthourenhout, Vantornout and van der Poel rejoined the main group while Nys hit the front, trying to bring Adams back.  As the gap widened, van Aert went back to the front while Peeters, Philip Walsleben and Aernouts latched onto the back of the group.

 

Van Aert had no interest in bringing his teammate back and so Nys was quickly back on the front. The veteran accelerated hard and when he crossed the line 8 seconds behind Adams, only van der Haar, van Aert, Meeusen, van der Poel and Vanthourenhout had managed to stay in contact.

 

As Walsleben joined the chase group, Meeusen realized that they were not getting any closer and so he took over the pace-setting. Very quickly, the Telenet-Fidea captain reeled Adams in.

 

The pace went down a bit and this allowed the Sunweb duo of Pauwels and Vantornout to rejoin the front group. However, van Aert quickly went back in action, hitting the front and putting his rivals under pressure.

 

Van der Haar and Nys tangled a bit when the latter made a mistake just before the finishing straight, meaning that van Aert, Adams, Meeusen and van der Poel got a small gap. However, Nys managed to bring things back together as they crossed the finish line to start the next lap.

 

Adams went back to the front and he managed to create a new gap, starting the penultimate lap with an advantage of 5 seconds over the main group. Van der Haar was leading the chase but as the pace was not fast enough, Walsleben tried to make a surprise attack.

 

Meeusen was quick to react but he failed to reel the German champion in. Instead, van der Poel took over and he brought both of the escapees back.

 

Walsleben had really found his legs and he again hit the front, making a big acceleration.  He created a small gap but van der Poel quickly realized the danger and started to chase.

 

Disaster struck for Meeusen who had looked like one of the strongest riders in the race when he crashed while he was riding in one of the front positions. He was quickly back on his bike but was now riding near the back of the big group with little room to move back to the front.

 

Walsleben started the final lap with an advantage of 7 seconds over the chase group in which Adams had now decided to sacrifice himself for his teammate van Aert. The Belgian made a huge acceleration on the finishing straight, setting the scene for van Aert’s big attack.

 

The youngster hit the front and only van der Poel was able to keep up with him. While the veterans were struggling in the main group, the two U23 riders started to approach the lone Walsleben who was still riding extremely well.

 

The chase group split, with only van der Haar, Nys, Pauwels and Adams remaining in contention. Meanwhile, van der Pole hit the front in the chase group and his work was enough for them to rejoin Walsleben halfway through the lap.

 

Van der Poel went straight to the front, trying to distance his two rivals. Walsleben was now clearly suffering while van Aert stayed glued to van der Poel’s wheel.

 

The trio had a big advantage over their chasers and it was clear that those three riders were riding away with the spots on the podium. Unsurprisingly, Walsleben was the first to lose contact while van der Poel and van Aert fought intensely for the first position, with the Dutchman winning the battle.

 

As the pace briefly went down, Walsleben managed to rejoin the leaders. Meanwhile, van der Poel continued to ride on the front but van Aert made a big mistake in the final turn which allowed his rival to get a small gap.

 

Van der Poel seemed to have taken the win but on the finishing straight, van Aert made an impressive comeback. Launching an explosive sprint from afar, he managed to come around his archrival just a few metres before the line to take his third big win of the season. Walsleben rolled across the line to complete the podium while Nys narrowly beat Pauwels in the sprint for fourth.

 

Result:

1. Wout van Aert 1.03.52

2. Mathieu van der Poel

3. Philip Walsleben +0.07

4. Sven Nys +0.08

5. Kevin Pauwels

6. Lars van der Haar

7. Jens Adams +0.09

8. Marcel Meisen

9. SvenVanthourenhout +0.12

10. Julien Taramarcaz

 

Overall standings:

1. Sven Nys 3.03.00

2. Kevin Pauwels +1.58

3. Wout van Aert +2.09

4. Klaas Vantornout +2.10

5. Lars van der Haar +2.45

6. Tom Meeusen +2.53

7. Niels Wubben +6.13

8. Mathieu van der Poel +6.15

9. Sven Vanthourenhout +6.21

10. Bart Aernouts +6.29