Belgian cyclo-cross star Wout Van Aert (Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace) dominated a windy third round of the BPost Bank Trophy from start to finish. The 21-year-old held off a late comeback from Sven Nys (Crelan-AA Drink) and won with an 18 seconds bonus over the Belgian veteran. Kevin Pauwels was the third Belgian rider on the podium, finishing at 1:04 from Van Aert.
Van Aert remains unbeaten in the BPost Bank Trophy and extends his lead in the time-based classification to a massive 2:19 over Pauwels. “These are great numbers. It’s an ample bonus to hit the Christmas weeks,” Van Aert said. Lars van der Haar (Giant-Alpecin) was the only other rider who led the race as he managed the hole shot in Hamme. A few moments later Van Aert passed him in a muddy sector. A few corners later Van Aert’s teammate Tim Merlier (Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace) overtook Van der Haar. “I looked back and saw Merlier in front. That was the sign for me to accelerate. I just rode as hard as I could for an hour,” Van Aert said.
Van Aert easily picked up the 15 bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint during the second lap. About ten seconds later Van der Haar (10) and Pauwels (5) collected the remaining bonus seconds for the general classification. In the background both World Champion Mathieu van der Poel (BKCP-Corendon) and Sven Nys were trying to make up for a poor start, with Nys adding an additional opening lap tumble to his problems. The duo showed up in the chase group during the third lap with Pauwels and Van der Haar still leading the chase on Van Aert.
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Pauwels struggled on an extremely challenging off-camber section. An impressive Van der Poel rode past both Pauwels and Nys and into third place. The Dutch duo of Van der Haar and Van der Poel came as close as ten seconds after the third lap.
Pauwels and Nys bridged up with the Dutch duo during the fourth lap in which only Nys was able to keep his pace up at the same rhythm of the leader. Halfway through the race Nys was trailing Van Aert by 16 seconds while Van der Poel, Pauwels and Van der Haar were further back.
What followed was a time-trial between Van Aert and Nys as Van der Poel, Pauwels and Van der Haar faded. Nys lost a few seconds during the fifth lap but then took back four seconds on lap six, clocking the fastest lap of the pack. Van Aert made a rare mistake on the penultimate lap as Nys gained about ten seconds. “I kept going until the intermediate sprint and from there I switched to a pace that I was able to keep up. In the end I was getting nervous when Sven was getting so close. I absolutely had to avoid every mistake and was under pressure. I’m proud I was able to finish it off,” Van Aert told Sporza.
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