After his victory in Hasselt on Saturday and his narrow defeat to Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet) in Aspere-Gavere on Sunday, Kevin Pauwels (Telenet-Fidea) is beginning to make a claim to be on of the big names of cyclocross. In the sport right now they speak of the “Big Three” of Nys, Pauwels’ teammate World champion Zdenek Stybar, and 2009 World champion Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus).
“You can maybe talk about it becoming the ‘Big Four’,” said Pauwels to the Belgian media today, according to Sporza,
“In Hasselt I go one over on Nys and Stybar in top form,” he said. “That was a course that suited me, but I also proved that I can ride at the front in the mud. Finally, now I can get victories regularly.”
26-year-old Pauwels has been a regular fixture in the Telenet-Fidea (previously just Fidea team) for a number of years. He was under-23 World champion in 2004, but really came of age last season when he took his first ever World Cup victory in Heusden-Zolder on December 26th.
This season the Telenet-Fidea has rarely been off the podium and is challenging the established hierarchy within the sport; as well as within his team. With previous team leader Bart Wellens struggling to recpture his form of previous years, the undisputed king of Telenet-Fidea has been Stybar. Far from being threatened by the challenge of his teammate though, the Czech welcomes it as a positive thing for the sport.
“It’s good for ‘cross,” said the World champion. “There are now five candidates for the win in each ‘cross [presumably including Klaas Vantournout (Sunweb-Revor – Ed] and that unpredictability is good for the excitement and so good for the sport.”
Pauwels has already been subject to the beginnings of a tug-o-war between his current team and Sunweb-Revor; if his rise continues this will only intensify as the season goes on.