Kevin Pauwels (Telenet-Fidea) is having the best season of his career so far. The 26-year-old, who was under-23 World champion in 2004, has spent much of his career in the shadows of more illustrious teammates like two-time World champion Bart Wellens and current rainbow jersey Zdenek Stybar. With Wellens taking a long tome to get back to his former form after illness, and Stybar currently out with a knee injury, Pauwels is emerging as the team’s current strongest rider.
He heads to this weekend’s races in a good position, at the top of the Gazet van Antwerpen (GvA) Trofee rankings and second place in the World Cup. Like the race’s organiser, he hopes that the snow will clear up for the World Cup in his home town of Kalmthout this Sunday.
“I hope the snow is disappearing in Kalmthout,” Pauwels told Sporza. “I prefer to ride on courses without snow.
“Otherwise, I like the course in Kalmthout,” he continued, “the fast twists and turns suit me. I would have liked there to be another climb, but that can’t be found there [it’s a very flat part of the country – ed]. It will not stop me from flying.”
With his lead over Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet) in the GvA Trofee standings currently 10 points Pauwels can afford to save something in Saturday’s Scheldecross. If he’s not looking like winning the race, he’ll ease off and save something for Kalmthout on Sunday.
“If it’s not happening, I won’t persist,” he confirmed.
Although Pauwels is a former under-23 World champion he really came of age last season with victory in the Druivenveldrijt in Overijse, regarded as one of the toughest races on the calendar, and took his first World Cup win at Heusden-Zolder on Boxing Day.
2010/11 is going even better for the Belgian, and his current position as Telenet-Fidea’s is not all due to his teammates misfortunes, he insists, but a consequence of his own improvement.
“I thought I’d be a bit better this winter, but in the end I am much better,” he said. “I’ve come on great strides since last season; I’m surprised because I didn’t expect to have gone so well.”
Although he has made a lot of personal progress though, he concedes that he has a way to go to reach the level of the current legend of the sport.
“I did some strength training in the summer,” he explained. “I’m just a little older, but I’m not there yet. Nys is still stronger.”
While Nys is the man he leads in the GvA, the positions are reversed in the Superprestige series. With Albert seemingly uncatchable in the World Cup, the battle between Pauwels and Nys could be the one to watch in the second half of the season.