Cyclo Cross World Champion Sven Nys has once again reached the top of the podium in the Belgium championships. Niels Albert, who has showed off a real good form lately, crashed and abandoned the race.

Fourteen riders started the race and Joeri Adams made the best start. He distanced himself to the peloton. At the same time Sven Vanthourenhout had mechanical troubles and broke his chain. He had to leave the race due to the problems.

But Joeri Adams couldn’t hold the lead for himself and he was slowly picked up by former world champion Niels Albert. He wasn’t the only one to catch Adams. Tom Meeusen, Sven Nys og Jim Aernouts also arrived at the front of the race. Adams fell off the group and formed a chase group together with Kevin Pauwels.

When the race reached its half, Sven Nys started to drive fast and made himself a 20 second gap to the rest of the group. At the same time, the defending champion Klaas Vantornout chrashed out of the race and was then unable to defend his title.

Michael Vanthourenhout tried to follow the World champion, but it was impossible. The reports said that Nys had 16 seconds to Vanthourenhout. Vanthourenhout wasn’t able to keep up the speed and lost seconds to the rest of the peloton. Niels Albert made some mistakes and chrashed. The crash was the reason to why he left the race.

Rob Peeters and Bart Wellens formed a chase group, got away from the rest of the peloton and tried to catch Sven Nys. But Nys just kept on increasing his lead. He crossed the finish line with a 33 second gap. Rob Peeters was the strongest of him and Wellens and took the silver medal, while Wellens took the last place on the podium.

Sven Nys said that he is in a very good period right now:

"I had a really good day, like I have been having for three weeks now. I felt on the first passage of the sandpit that I was good. I wanted to start the sandpit fresh every lap and succeeded. My ninth title is not the same as the first title but I am really proud. That I can do this at my age is a miracle. To be able to give the supporters and sponsors this at my age is great," he said according to cyclingnews.com.

Another rider, who has had a very good period, is Niels Albert. He has won two of six UCI World Cup races this season. But it wasn’t his day today:

“It didn’t go as i expected," Albert said according to cyclingnews.com. "It wasn’t running smoothly and it was just not in the cards today. I made mistakes, crashed a few times. I didn’t have the day to become national champion. I felt good during the warm-up but during the race it didn’t turn out as I hoped. I have no explanation."

Full results of the 2014 Belgium cyclo cross championships:

1. Sven Nys (Crelan-AA Drink Cycling Team) 1:05:09
2. Rob Peeters (Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace Cycling Team) 0:00:33
3. Bart Wellens (Telenet-Fidea Cycling Team) 0:00:40
4. Tom Meeusen (Telenet-Fidea Cycling Team) 0:00:53
5. Jim Aernouts (Sunweb-Napoleon Games Cycling Team) 0:00:56
6. Dieter Vanthourenhout (Sunweb–Napoleon Games) 0:01:06
7. Wietse Bosmans (BKCP-Powerplus Cycling Team) 0:01:18
8. Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Napoleon Games Cycling Team) 0:01:30
9. Bart Aernouts (AA Drink Cycling Team) 0:01:34
10. Michael Vanthourenhout (Sunweb-Napoleon Games Cycling Team)
DNF Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus Cycling Team)
DNF Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Napoleon Games Cycling Team)
DNF Joeri Adams (Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace)
DNF Sven Vanthourenhout (Crelan-AA Drink Cycling Team)