Mister Superprestige goes straight down the middle this time to take his 55th career race in the series
Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet) reaffirmed his title as “Mister Superprestige” with a sprint victory over big rival Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Revor) for the second straight day. The Kannibaal van Baal took his 55th career victory in the season-long series in the Netherlands round in Gieten, in the Drenthe region. Unlike in Koksijde, Belgium, the day before though, there was no hint of foul play, as Nys sprinted straight down the middle and took his second win in two days, as Pauwels was simply unable to come past.
Just as had happened the day before, an acceleration from Nys with just over two laps to go saw the pair ride away from the rest of a very select group. Rob Peeters (Telenet-Fidea) managed to jump away from the others, and almost catch up with Nys and Pauwels as they slowed on the build up to the sprint, but had to be content with third; which was still his best result of the season.
“I’ve been through a lot in my career, but suddenly I found myself at the eye of a storm,” said Nys to Sporza, referring to the furore that followed his Koksijde victory, “that’s why this victory is an enormous boost.
“I followed the right tactics for the whole race,” he added. “At first I was sparing with my strength and so I was still fresh at the end. I had a pure adrenalin rush in the sprint.”
After the controversy of the finish the day before, Pauwels had no problem admitting that he had been beaten by a better man this time.
“Sven was stronger,” the Sunweb-Revor rider admitted. “I had a bad feeling in my legs at the beginning, maybe because of the ‘cross in Koksijde. The sprint was into a head wind, which is not really my thing.”
Peeters shows that he means business right from the start
A little rain had finally fallen on the European cyclocross season, but only enough to make the course in Gieten a little greasy; the mud would have to wait for another day. With two hurdles, three steps and an artificial bridge on the course, there were precious few places to force the riders to dismount and it was to be another race run like a summer time ‘kermiskoers’
Stybar got the fastest start, but Peeters squeezed past the World champion to lead the race off the tarmac start area and onto the grass for the first time. Stybar chose to dismount over the hurdles for the first time, but Peeters bunny hopped them and almost threw himself off in front of the rest of the field.
Peeters’ wobble caused the rest to hesitate and he and Stybar got away; a skid from Telenet-Fidea teammate Tom Meeusen saw the gap grow further, but Klaas Vantournout (Sunweb-Revor) managed to fight his way across, making a group of three in front.
Radomir Simunek (BKCP-Powerplus) jumped away from the pack to try to bridge the gap, but was chased down by Sven Nys just after he crossed the line at the end of the first lap; the gap to the leader was fourteen seconds but, now at the front of the pack, Nys was determinedly giving chase.
Stybar led the trio around the majority of the next lap, although Peeters seemed to be having difficulty staying with the World champion’s pace; behind them Nys was thinning out the bunch, with Meeusen clinging desperately to his wheel. Having been beaten by Nys in a contested sprint in Koksijde the day before, Kevin Pauwels seemed to be struggling to match the Kannibaal this time.
With two up the road “Mister Superprestige” imposes himself
Nys had cut the lead to seven seconds at the end of the second lap, with Bart Aernouts leading a small group just behind him. Most were dismounting for the hurdles, but Stybar and Peeters in front, and Meeusen behind, were still bunny hopping.
Nys was steadily closing on the front three throughout the third lap while, behind him, Pauwels jumped away from the chase group. The Kannibaal finally latched on to the back wheel of Vantornout, to expand the lead group to four, just as they crossed the line, while Pauwels was just a few seconds back.
Midway through the lap, as Peeters tried to accelerate away, Pauwels managed to close the gap. The group in the lead was now up to five, with Meeusen, Aernouts, Simunek and BKCP-Powerplus teammate Dieter Vanthourenhout chasing twelve seconds behind as the crossed the line with six laps to go.
Vanthourenhout made a mess of trying to bunny hop the hurdles though, reducing the chase group to three.
With four laps to go the Meeusen, Aernouts, Simunek group had cut their deficit to seven seconds. As Peeters tried to escape the leaders once again though, Meeusen managed to sprint across the gap to join the rear of the group.
Peeters and Vantornout managed to get clear, with Stybar and Pauwels behind them with Nys, Meeusen and Aernouts chasing on. A bike change for Peeters saw him drop back to the chase group though, leading Vantornout alone in the lead.
Across the line with three to go, the Sunweb-Revor rider had a few seconds over the rest, but was steadily reeled in by Nys in the first half of the lap.
Nys turns the screw and it’s a one-on-one with Pauwels again
Having caught up with Vantornout, Nys began to turn the screw; first putting the two Telenet-Fidea riders into difficulty, then gapping Stybar and Vantornout, until it was just himself and Pauwels ahead, as they had been the day before.
As they crossed the line at the end of the lap – with just two left to race – the two were five seconds clear of the rest, who were led by a frantically chasing Stybar. Nys was still doing all of the leading up ahead, with Pauwels clinging to him, as they flew around the flat course.
As they took the bell, Pauwels came through to the front for the first time, and they had opened the gap over the Stybar-led chasers to more than a dozen seconds. The race looked to be heading for another sprint between the sport’s current top two, unless one of them could do something special in the next few minutes.
Peeters’ chasing pace proved to be too much for his companions and he managed to break away in a lone pursuit. He looked to have left himself too much to do at this late stage though, and was surely only racing for third.
Sitting behind Nys once more, Pauwels was in no position to take advantage of a slip from the Landbouwkrediet rider as the course traversed from muddy grass to Drenthe cobbles. Nys began to slow and watch Pauwels, which almost allowed Peeters to catch up with them, but as he opened up his sprint the Telenet-Fidea rider was dropped again.
Once again Nys was sprinting from the front, and Pauwels appeared to be pulling alongside; there would be no moving off line this time though, and Nys kept the power down straight down the middle of the road and held him off once more.
Peeters celebrated third place – his biggest result of the season so far – behind the leading pair, and Vantornout outsprinted the rest of the chasers to take fourth.
The victory sees Nys increase his lead in the overall Superprestige competition; he now has 65 points to Pauwels’ 59, and looks on course to take an incredible eleventh overall victory in the series.
Result Superprestige Gieten elite men
1. Sven Nys (Bel) Landbouwkrediet
2. Kevin Pauwels (Bel) Sunweb-Revor
3. Rob Peeters (Bel) Telenet-Fidea
4. Klaas Vantornout (Bel) Sunweb-Revor
5. Tom Meeusen (Bel) Telenet-Fidea
6. Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Quick Step
7. Bart Aernouts (Bel) Rabobank-Giant Offroad Team
8. Radomir Simunek (Cze) BKCP-Powerplus
9. Dieter Vanthourenhout (Bel) BKCP-Powerplus
10. This van Amerongen (Ned) AA Drink-Leontien.nl