One day after winning the Krawatencross in Lille, Sven Nys continued his fantastic weekend when he came out on top in the Superprestige race in Hoogstraten. The Belgian champion overcame a bad start to bridge across to Tom Meeusen and Niels Albert and launched a furious attack that left both of his rivals with no chance to respond. Despite drifting back to 3rd behind Klaas Vantornout, Albert defended his lead in the Superprestige standings with just one round left.
Sven Nys may have lost the rainbow jersey but the veteran is clearly intent on showing the world that he is still the best. One day after winning the Krawatencross in Lille, he won the Superprestige race in Hoogstarten in impressive fashion when he arrived solo at the finish in the muddy Belgian race.
For the second day in a row, Nys got his race off to a bad start and he could only watch from behind while Rob Peeters and Tom Meeusen took control in the early part of the race. While Peeters is no longer in the form he had earlier in the year, Meeusen was intent on getting his revenge for yesterday's defeat and he soloed off the front.
Yesterday Niels Albert had shown that he is about to put his recent woes behind him and today he was back in his favourite muddy terrain. Knowing that he had to finish near the top to defend his overall lead in the Superprestige series, he set off in pusuit of Meeusen and quickly closed the gap.
Albert was on a roll in the thick mud and he managed to drop Meeusen to become the lone leader of the race, with Meeusen drifting back into the first big chase group. Nys was apparently not at his best as he was only rolling along at the back of the group, not taking any initiative despite his main rival being solo off the front.
However, there was no reason to worry for the Nys fans. When he decided that it was time to kick into action, he made a fierce acceleration that only Meeusen and Klaas Vantornout could match. That didn't last long though as Nys quickly got clear on his own and in a matter of seconds he was back with Albert.
Albert did his best to keep up the pace as if nothing had happened while Vantornout was gradually getting better and finally joined the leader to make it a front trio.
In the sand section, Nys decided that it was time to go off on his own and none of his rivals were any match to his superior skills. From there, it was a solo show as the Belgian champion kept extending his lead all the way to the finish.
Behind, the battle for second was quickly determined as for the second day in a row Albert paid the price for a fast start. He was dropped by Vantornout who soloed away to take 2nd while a visibly tired Albert could only manage 3rd.
With the win, Nys closed his 6-second deficit to Albert down to 4 points but it will be a big task for Nys to take the win when the series comes to an end next Sunday with the final race in Middelkerke
Result:
1 Sven Nys -Crelan - AA Drink Team
2 Klaas Vantornout - Sunweb - Napoleon Games
3 Niels Albert - BKCP-Powerplus
4 Thijs van Amerongen - Team AA-Drink - Leontien.nl
5 Tom Meeusen - Telenet - Fidea
6 Rob Peeters - Vastgoedservice - Golden Palace
7 Philipp Walsleben - BKCP-Powerplus
8 Corné Van Kessel - Telenet - Fidea
9 Jim Aernouts - Sunweb - Napoleon Games
10 Sven Vanthourenhout - Crelan - AA Drink Team
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