Cyclocross: Local hero Lars van der Haar (Giant-Alpecin) clinched his first victory at the Cyclocross World Cup 2015 in front of his home crowd today. For the 24-year-old it was already the third triumph in a row at the event in Valkenburg. Overall leader Wout van Aert (Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace) was able to stay on top with a second place.
Shortly after the start in Valkenburg it looked as if the most dominant driver of the still young season, namely World Cup leader Wout van Aert, would not be able to be stopped by the competition even at the stop in the Netherlands. On the first lap he launched an irresistible attack and was able to open up a gap. Lars van der Haar, Sven Nys (Crelan-AA Drink) and Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Napoleon Games) joined forces in pursuit.
Lars van der Haar then immediately showed that, after his successes in Valkenburg in 2014 and 2013, he wanted to have a say in the victory this year as well. He took the lead from van Aert and quickly had a lead of over half a minute over the Belgian chasing trio. Nys and van Aert kept picking up the pace and putting last year's World Cup winner, Kevin Pauwels, under great pressure. At the beginning of the eighth lap it was all over for the 31-year-old and the chasing trio became a chasing duo.
With a lead of 38 seconds, van der Haar finally went into the final lap and therefore only had to drive home the victory, which he managed to do in a sovereign manner. But the role of the hunted gnawed at the Dutchman's nerves, as he described in the interview after crossing the finish line: “The last two laps were tough. You never know what the pursuers have up their sleeves.” Behind him, the two Belgians Nys and van Aert fought a thrilling battle for the remaining podium places, which van Aert finally won when Nys got into trouble on a short ramp and had to let his compatriot pass.
The best German today was Marcel Meisen (Kuota-Lotto) in eleventh place. Wout van Aert remains at the top of the World Cup and heads into the next race on November 10 in Koksijde, Belgium, with a 22-point lead over van der Haar.
[easy table th=“0″]
1.,Lars van der Haar,Netherlands,01:05:58
2.,Wout van Aert,Belgium,00:00:24
3.,Sven Nys,Belgium,00:00:34
4.,Kevin Pauwels,Belgium,00:00:59
5., Julien Taramarcaz, Switzerland, 00:01:40
6.,Michael Vanthourenhout,Belgium,00:01:59
7.,Come van Kessel,Netherlands,00:02:05
8.,Clément Venturini,France,00:02:06
9.,Diether Sweeck,Belgium,00:02:13
10.,Laruens Sweeck,Belgium,00:02:18
[/easy table]