An ever-aggressive Zdenek Stybar powered away from his competitors halfway through the 60-minute race to take round one of the Cyclocross World Cup, in Aigle, Switzerland. Niels Albert fought back from a bad start to finish second, nine seconds behind. Kevin Pauwels was third, while Sven Nys was cleanly beaten to ninth place. Bart Aernouts had been looking good, but an untimely slipped chain put him out of contention.
Stybar attacked several times, starting in lap one. He finally opened the decisive gap in lap six (of 11), when he stormed off the front. From then on he was by himself. "It was a very tough race," Stybar admitted. He is dominating the season right now, but says it is still tough work. "Every race is hard to win," he said.
Asked by Belgian TV if he didn't think his good form came too early, he gave little hope to his competitors. "I am keeping a reserve to get into top form." This became apparent when in the last lap he dismounted and jumped over the two obstacles on the course - the entire race he had jumped them. Stybar did not want to make a costly mistake as Albert was mounting a comeback - down from over 20 seconds with two laps to go, he came to within nine seconds at the finish. Stybar has a simple recipe for a strong season. "I trained very hard, but now I will also rest a lot," he said.
Albert did not expect to be on the podium. "But the course suits me well," he said. He had a slow start, finding himself way in the back. "Once my motor warmed up it was ok," he said. After sitting out the first races with injury, Albert is slowly coming back. "Power, endurance - there is still room for improvement. I am not superb yet."
Very aggressive World Champion
Stybar started strongly right off the bat. He already had a small gap after second-placed Sven Nys had some trouble on one of the technical uphills. Through the sand pit, Stybar rode right through, while everyone else had to dismount. But Nys fought his way back to the Czech rider. They were followed by Klaas Vantornout, Kevin Pauwels and Bart Aernouts.
Under the relentless pressure put on by Stybar, Vantornout dropped back into a chase group containing Niels Albert, Steve Chainel, Sven Vanthourenhout and Francis Mourey. Bart Wellens briefly moved up into the front group, but he dropped his chain, taking a costly 15-second timeout to fix it.
In the fifth lap, the groups had merged and Stybar took a breather. Chainel went to the front, but Stybar attacked when he realized that Nys had dropped to the back of the group. Stybar, Chainel, Aernouts and Vantornout created a small gap over the chasers. After six laps, the first eight riders had sort of merged again.
Stybar once again accelerated, getting a five-second gap over his chasers with four laps to go: Aernouts, Chainel, Vantornout, Pauwels, Nys and Albert. Later Mourey, Dieter and Sven Vanthourenhout also moved up into the chase, but Stybar's gap increased to 20 seconds with three laps to go. It was then to Aernouts to drop his chain. He took even longer than Wellens to put it back on and also said good-bye to the podium.
Dieter Vanthourenhout, Vantornout and Albert chased hard and separated themselves from the Nys group. They were 21 seconds behind Stybar with two laps to go. Pauwels followed at 27 seconds, the Nys group was already half a minute in arrears.
Albert attacked and came to within 15 seconds, with one lap to go. Dieter Vanthourenhout, Vantornout and Pauwels were 25 seconds back. The Nys group was still at half a minute.
1 Zdenek Stybar
2 Niels Albert at 0'09
3 Kevin pauwels at 0'14
4 Klaas Vantornout at 0'20
5 Dieter Vanthourenhout
6 Francis Mourey
7 Sven Vanthourenhout
8 Steve Chainel
9 Sven Nys
10 Bart Wellens