Cyclocross News: Wout van Aert defended his title as Cyclocross World Champion in a close and gripping race today. After a weak start, the Belgian fought the expected gripping duel at the top with Mathieu Van der Poel from the Netherlands, but a flat tire on the third to last lap destroyed all hopes of the World Championship.
After the women had already offered thrilling cycling at the Cross World Championships in Luxembourg yesterday, the big highlight of the season for many fans was waiting today: At 15:00 p.m. the starting shot was fired in Bieles for the men and the question was: Can Wout van Aert be his Defend the title, or will one of the numerous challengers thwart his plans?
The conditions on the course, which was already heavily used by the numerous races, were difficult, but more predictable than the day before: plus degrees had thawed the snow and ice and transformed the previously smooth ground into muddy ground, which is typical for cross-country skiing. By far the best start was made by Mathieu van der Poel, one of the drivers with the best form at the moment, and he was able to pull away from the front during the first lap. Defending champion Wout van Aert had some problems and kept narrowly avoiding a crash.
The race in re-live
As the race progressed, however, the defending champion found his rhythm and was able to catch up with Van der Poel, who was still in the lead. However, the Dutchman seemed to be in better shape today: he seemed livelier, stronger and more confident. In the third to last lap, however, bad luck struck and far away from the transition zone, he suffered a flat tire on a descent and fell more than 40 seconds behind the reigning world champion from Belgium before the saving wheel change. Van der Poel gave everything until the end, but it was no use: Van Aert crossed the finish line first, 44 seconds ahead of his Dutch competitor. The distance to third-placed Kevin Pauwels, who finished 2 minutes and 9 seconds behind the winner, shows how strong the two rivals were.
Wout van Aert: "I didn't expect that. I didn't have a particularly good preparation and nobody really believed in it. But I just wanted to do my best over these 60 minutes. It's a shame that bad luck played such a big role and that Mathieu had a flat tire. But that's cyclocross and of course I'm happy about my second world title."
The German starters also showed a very good race. Sascha Weber drove to a strong tenth place, Philipp Walsleben followed in 13th place. Marcel Meisen, who is in such good form at the moment, did not have a good day and gave up the race after material problems.
Result Cyclocross World Championship 2017 Men Elite
Tour Locations | Driver | Country | Time |
---|---|---|---|
1. | Wout van aert | Belgium | 01:02:08 |
2. | Mathieu van der Poel | Netherlands | 00:00:44 |
3. | Kevin Pauwels | Belgium | 00:02:08 |
4. | Lars van der Haar | Netherlands | 00:02:51 |
5. | Come from Kessel | Netherlands | 00:03:08 |
6. | Lauren's Sweek | Belgium | 00:03:28 |
7. | Michael Boros | Czechia | 00:03:46 |
8. | Gianni Vermeersch | Belgium | 00:04:01 |
9. | Simon Zahner | Switzerland | 00:04:08 |
10. | Sasha Weber | Germany | 00:04:28 |
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