Tom Meeusen (Telenet-Fidea) is set to miss his second straight weekend of cyclocross races as he continues to suffer with pain in his ribs. The 24-year-old crashed spectacularly as he lost control of his bike in the rutted sand at the foot of a steep descent on the dunes of the Zonhoven Superprestige, on November 4th; although he managed to remount and finish - albeit in 22nd place - has been unable to race since.
“I’ve been taking it easy all week,” Meeusen told Sporza. “I managed to do some riding, but couldn’t push too hard.
“In the meantime I hope to be better soon,” he added. “But this is not currently the case.”
As well as this afternoon’s GP Hasselt, Meeusen will also sit out tomorrow’s race in Aspere-Gavere, which effectively ends any slim hopes he had of challenging in both the bpost bank trofee and Superprestige series. This will be the second weekend of racing he will miss, after being in too much pain to race last week’s Jaarmarktcross in Niel - which is not part of any series - and the Superprestige Hamme-Zogge.
Meeusen had travelled to Niel with the intention of trying to start, but after riding one practise lap it became clear that it would not be possible.
“I tried a lap, but the heavy mud section I immediately knew what the situation was,” he told Sporza at the time.
“The pain was unbearable. Starting would have been stupid and wrong.”
Meanwhile, this weekend’s races look to be a continuance of the battle between World champion Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) and Belgian champion Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet-Euphony). Albert leads the bpost bank trofee - which is decided in overall time this season, for the first time - by 54 seconds, while Nys is in his accustomed position at the top of the Superprestige series, having won all three races so far.