For the second successive year Belgium, the most dominant nation in cyclocross has gone home without a single rainbow jersey from the World Championships. Just like last year, the Belgians occupied the bottom two steps of the elite men’s podium, with Sven Nys in second and Kevin Pauwels in third, but were kept off it by Czech defending champion Zdenek Stybar.
Belgium’s haul, of just those silver and bronze medals, makes an even worse return than last year when Tom Meeusen was retrospectively awarded the under-23 silver following the disqualification of the Polish Szczepaniak brothers.
That Stybar won is no surprise. Before his knee injury, sustained in a training crash back in November, the Czech was riding the 2010/11 season as he’d left off in 2009/10. The fact that he was forced to rest for almost a month at the end of last year, and then chose to train instead of race earlier this month, meant that he was likely a bit fresher than most of the opposition.
The fact that Stybar also seems to be better the rest right now meant that, while his victory was by no means a formality, it did seem almost inevitable.
Nys did suffer a puncture late on in the race but refused to blame the problem for his defeat.
“I fought like a lion but I was no match for Zdenek Stybar,” he admitted after the race, according to Het Laatste Nieuws. “The best won and I was the second best.
“When Stybar put in his attack, I was slightly less sharp; I had to wait too long to find my second wind. When I got a flat tire on top it all, I did loose five seconds more and they were too much; that loss was just too much for me. Without that luck, I probably could have gone slightly harder to keep the gap at ten to twelve seconds; that would have been better than seventeen to twenty seconds.”
Arguably, even more of a concern though, is that the country that hosts more of the top races than any other missed out in the races for young developing riders.
The under-23 race went to form with Dutch World Cup winner Lars van der Haar escaping a small group at the end to take the win. Best-ranked Belgian Wietse Bosmans was part of that group but was unable to respond to the accelerations at the finish and could only manage sixth.
Belgium’s big favourite in the junior race Laurens Sweeck, the World number one and World Cup winner, suffered a succession of crashes on the slick course and slumped to fifth; his identical twin brother Diether punctured and abandoned. Incredibly the race featured two sets of identical twins; the other pair was Fabien and Loic Doubey of France, who took the silver and bronze behind compatriot Clement Venturini.
“Unfortunately, when I think of Saturday’s races, I am satisfied with the riders work who I’ve seen in both under-23s and juniors but I can't reconcile the results,” said national coach Rudy De Bie, according to Het Laatste Nieuws. “We should have earned a medal on Saturday.
“Without the puncture for Vinnie Braet we would probably have got one in the under-23s,” he explained, “just like with the juniors where we were overwhelmed by bad luck with the Sweeck brothers and Yorben Van Tichelt. The fact that this was the World Championships of too many punctures and setbacks, gives me a sense of unease going home.
“It’s especially a pity for the youngsters,” De Bie added, “for whom a World Championships can be a stepping-stone to furthering their career.”
Belgium’s top woman finisher was national champion Sanne Cant in ninth place, 2 minutes behind Dutch winner Marianne Vos. While the 20-year-old is the only Belgian currently likely to threaten the podium, and is developing every season, she was only ever an outside bet for a medal.
“Unfortunately I couldn’t hit my target of a top five place,” she told Sporza, “I started well but was blocked on the first climb; everybody came around me and I couldn’t close the gap.”
The only other Belgian woman in the race was Ellen Van Loy, who finished in 28th place.