With a fierce acceleration halfway through the race, the famous Koppenbergcross, near Oudenaarde, Belgium was decided in favour of in-form Wout Van Aert (Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace). The 21-year-old Belgian rider strengthens his lead in the time-based classification of the Bpost bank trophy series over Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Napoleon Games) up to 55 seconds.
Last year Van Aert won after a much-discussed sprint against Sven Nys in which a team-mate disturbed the build-up. “Today I won by a big margin. It was good to have more time to enjoy the win. It’s fun to tackle tough courses like this one when your form is great because you know gaps will automatically be created,” Van Aert told Sporza.
Once again Pauwels was runner-up to Van Aert, just like during the first Bpo-round in Ronse. Dutch rider Lars van der Haar (Giant-Alpecin) captured the final podium spot. Ninefold-winner Sven Nys (Crelan-AA Drink) waved adieu to his Koppenbergcross in the final lap where he was forced to abandon the race with chain problems while battling for fourth place with Tom Meeusen (Telenet-Fidea).
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Before the acceleration from Van Aert the big guns kept quiet on the Koppenberg. After each acceleration the pace dropped again and, as a result, a group of more than 20 riders was still more or less together. Van Aert showed his strength a first time at the intermediate sprint during the second lap. He took 15 bonus seconds.
Van der Haar received 10 seconds for his second place and Thijs van Amerongen (Telenet-Fidea) took five seconds. The pace dropped again after the sprint and Van Amerongen took advantage and jumped away with Diether Sweeck (Era-Murprotec). The duo collected a lead of nearly half a minute. During the fourth lap the chase group was so crowded that several big names were suddenly slipping away to the back. Van der Haar didn’t hesitate and upped the pace with three more riders on his wheel.
“I was feeling very bad while Wout was so good,” Van der Haar told Sporza. “It was a very weird race, which is no surprise because the course is very hard so everybody is afraid. There was a bit of chaos and suddenly I rode in front. I figured I should keep going because that pushing isn’t fun either.”
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