Rob Peeters was surprised himself that he beat power houses Zdenek Stybar and Sven Nys in the Kasteelcross in Zonnebeke on Saturday. Klaas Vantornout was fourth, followed by American Jonathan Page. Page was 39 seconds behind and showed good form one week before the cyclocross World Championships in Germany.
Peeters was quite pleased that he ended ahead of the super stars, but was also puzzled. "I am totally surprised," he told hln.be. "I wasn't winning against Janneke and Mieke [e.g. nobodys -ed.], no?" Peeters did say that he knew early that he had a good day. "At the start I felt like I could do something today."
Dieter Vanthourenhout was the first to accelerate hard, forcing a split. "When Dieter Vanthourenhout made the pace I had no trouble following him," Peeters said. "Just the opposite, I was able to take over from him and speed up myself, which made it hard for Vanthourenhout."
Peeters was aware that there were less competitors, as Niels Albert was taking a rest day to concentrate on winning the World Cup overall with tomorrow's final race in Hoogerheide, Netherlands. "Of course the others had their head already in Hoogerheide, but that doesn't take away from my victory, which I will enjoy."
Stybar had just returned from a tough training camp in Mallorca. "Mostly in the first half of the race I really noticed the hard training sessions. I had a hard time finding my rhythm and so I had no answer when Rob Peeters went. I wanted to win one this weekend, so it has to be tomorrow's World Cup in Hoogerheide," he said with a smile.
Jonathan Page, the 2007 cyclocross World Championships silver medal winner, is returning to good form just ahead of this year's Worlds. His fifth place looks promising for another good result, even if a medal seems out of reach. He has the advantage of already having raced in the St. Wendel Worlds in 2005, when he finished 14th.
1. Rob Peeters (Bel) in 58'50"
2. Zdenek Stybar (Cze) op 7"
3. Sven Nys (Bel) 11"
4. Klaas Vantornout (Bel) 33"
5. Jonathan Page (USA) 39"
6. Jan Denuwelaere (Bel) 1'30"
7. Kenneth VanCompernolle (Bel) 1'50"
8. Marco Bianco (Ita) 2'03"
9. Dieter Vanthourenhout (Bel) 2'52"
10. Martin Zlamalik (Cze) 3'01"