Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) showed that he is back to his best after a lacklustre start to the season when he won yesterday's World Cup race in Koksijde. Held in the dunes along the Belgian coast, the race is a real classic and Albert was full of praise of the course that also was the scene for his 2012 World Championships win.

For several years, Niels Albert has been one of the biggest challengers to the supremacy of world champion Sven Nys but the Belgian got his 2013 season off to a bad start. He had to wait until November 10 until he finally took a win in a major race when he rode away from everybody in the Superprestige race in Hamme-Zogge.

Yesterday, he showed that he has found back his best legs when he won one of the season's real classics, the World Cup race in the dunes in Koksijde. He has a special affiliation with the technical and heavy course as he became world champion there in 2012 and also won the World Cup race in 2010.

After having been beaten by Nys in the 2012 edition of the race, Albert proved his superiority when he rode away from his rivals on the fourth of the nine laps. From there, he kept extending his lead for most of the race before taking a more conservative approach during the final few laps.

"To me, this race is like coming home," Albert said according to Cyclingnews. "It's a special feeling to ride around here. It's a course that doesn't lie. Most of the times people refer to Asper-Gavere or the Koppenbergcross as the toughest of courses, but this one's special. It's different. It's better not to underestimate it.

"The trick here is not to blow up in the sand sections. If you exit them at 100 percent, then you've got nothing left to keep the pace high at the sections in between the sand. I kept some margin while running. I wasn't planning to ride myself to death in the deep sand."

With his wins in Hamme-Zogge and Koksijde, Albert is clearly back and has hit his best form in time for the important Christmas races. He is confident that more is in store after having overcome problems with overtraining earlier in the season.

"My form's been good for awhile now," he said. "Without bad luck, I would've been a factor in Asper-Gavere, too, possibly helping out teammate Philipp Walsleben. It's great to head over to Spain with these sensations. After my... let's call it overtraining, I've been resting and scheduling trainings well. The upcoming two weeks are all important for the Belgian championships. During the Christmas races, there's only time for recovery."

Not long ago, Albert ruled himself out of contention in any of the three major race series but with yesterday's win, he finds himself in 4th in the World Cup standings, 32 points off leader Lars van der Haahr (Rabobank). He now opens a door that he may actually take the win in the series.

"I've said that the classifications were over in the way that it's no longer in my hands," he said. "Now it depends on others how high I can place. As long as I can take points instead of losing some, it'll be alright. I can't fail anymore."

While Albert is now back in contention, winner of the first two rounds and overall leader van der Haahr had a bad day and could only manage 10th.

"I didn't expect to still be the leader," he told Sporza. "But that doesn't matter. I rode a bad race.

"It went well until the last two of three laps. Then I had to get off my bike because of a stupidity. Someone rode into my foot and my shoe became loose. For a moment, I thought that I could get back but I couldn't and then I lost faith in myself."

The next round of the World Cup takes places on December 22 in Namur.