Cyclocross News: Yesterday the first European Cross Country Championships for men took place in Huijbergen, where Lars van der Haar won the gold medal. The local hero fought a gripping duel with the Belgian Wout van Aert - the decision was only made in the last lap shortly before the finish line. As the best German, Philipp Walsleben narrowly missed out on the top 10.
Large numbers of spectators watched a very promising premiere for the men's cyclocross European championships in Huijbergen yesterday in good conditions. One of the big favorites didn't start at all in the morning: The Belgian cross country veteran Sven Nys was flat with a fever and his dream of the European Championship was over before he had even started. Particularly tragic: It would have been the first and last chance for the title for the 39-year-old, since Nys will be hanging up his cycling shoes in the spring.
The race started hectic. Secret favorite Kevin Pauwels from Belgium fell back right at the beginning of the race due to a defect, but fought his way forward lap by lap. For a long time, the two youngsters Michael Vanthourenhout and Laurens Sweeck, a Belgian duo, drove at the front. In the course of the fourth lap, they were joined by the two top favorites van Aert and van der Haar. However, Vanthourenhout and Sweeck had to pay the price for the speed work in the fourth of a total of nine laps on the technically demanding course: First Vanthourenhout had to let go, a few hundred meters later it happened to Sweeck as well.
This seemed to set the stage for the big duel between van Aert and van der Haar. However, the two rivals first had to form a temporary alliance in order to keep Pauwels at bay, who was catching up more and more. In the end it was van Aert who attacked in the sixth lap and drove away from his Dutch competitor - it seemed that a preliminary decision had already been made, but surprisingly for everyone involved the 21-year-old Belgian got into trouble half a lap later and van der Haar was able to fight his way back . "I had it in my own hands, but somehow it suddenly didn't fit anymore," a disappointed van Aert described the situation after the end of the race.
The final decision was not made until the final lap: van der Haar was able to tackle a steep, sandy section on his bike, while his Belgian rival had to dismount - the die was cast. The Dutchman finally crossed the finish line in front of his home crowd with a lead of 19 seconds. "I can't believe it and first have to process what happened. Honestly, when Wout drove off I thought it was over. I had already given up a bit." the overjoyed winner described his emotional state in the sixth round. "It's an incredible win and I'm very happy."
The Belgian-Dutch dominance in the top 10 was broken only by the in-form Swiss Julien Taramarcaz in 5th place and Radomir Simunek from the Czech Republic in 9th place. The best German, Philipp Walsleben, only just missed out on the top 10 in eleventh place.
Final result Cyclocross EM 2015
[easy table th=“0″]
1.,Lars van der Haar,Netherlands,01:02:29
2.,Wout van Aert,Belgium,00:00:19
3.,Kevin Pauwels,Belgium,00:00:39
4.,Michael Vanthourenhout,Belgium,00:00:59
5., Julien Taramarcaz, Switzerland, 00:01:20
6.,Thijs van Amerongen,Netherlands,00:01:33
7., Laurens Sweeck, Belgium, 00:01:51
8.,Comé van Kessel,Netherlands,00:02:08
9., Radomir Simunek, Czech Republic, 00:02:13
10.,Tim Merlier,Belgium,00:02:21
[/easy table]