Wout van Aert again proved that he is currently the best cyclo-cross rider when he took a hugely dominant victory in the Bpost Bank Trofee race on a muddy course in Essen. Having attacked straight from the gun, the Belgian rode more than half of the race on his own and distanced Tom Meeusen and his teammate Kevin Peeters by more than a minute. Sven Nys suffered a lot and didn’t make the top 19, meaning that he lost his overall lead to van Aert.

 

All season, Wout van Aert has proved that he has come straight from the U23 ranks to dominate the elite races and today he again underlined his huge potential. In the Bpost Bank Trofee race in Essen which opens the important Christmas season, he crushed the opposition in a very rare demonstration of power.

 

Already on the first lap, van Aert made his first big attack and he immediately distanced all his rivals. His teammate Kevin Peeters and Tom Meeusen both rejoined him but the rest of the peloton never saw the Belgian again.

 

Van Aert stayed with his companions for a few laps, benefiting from the work of his teammate Peeters while he saved energy for his final big attack. Already before the halfway point, he made his acceleration and it was evident that no one had any response to his massive power in the heavy mud.

 

From there, it was a procession for van Aert who constantly increased his advantage for the rest of the race until he crossed the line with an advantage of 1.07 over Meeusen who was an equally dominant second. The battle for third spot on the podium was more exciting as Kevin Pauwels had made a big acceleration to rejoin Peeters, with the pair spending most of the race together before Peeters rode away to make it two Vastgoedservice riders on the podium.

 

Going into the race, many were curious to see whether Sven Nys would return to form in time for the important Christmas races. However, the race ended as another painful affair for the veteran who had gone into the race as the overall leader of the Bpost Bank Trofee series but ended the race in second with virtually no chance to win the series overall.

 

Nys got his race off to a solid start but throughout the entire race, he drifted backwards and he didn’t even finish in the top 10. Having lost almost three minutes to van Aert, he dropped to second in the overall standings where he now trails his compatriot by a massive 1.50 while Pauwels is third, 6 seconds further behind.

 

The Bpost Bank series will be resumed on December 30 with the Azencross in Loenhout but most of the big riders will be back in action tomorrow in the World Cup race on the hilly course in Namur.

 

How it unfolded:

As it is often the case, Lars van der Haar was the fastest rider when the peloton sprinted down the paved start-finishing area and he led the group through the first few turns. When they hit the first muddy section and dismounted to run, it was Wout van Aert who already showed his intentions when he distanced his rivals right from the beginning.

 

While Rob Peeters led the chase of his teammate, van der Haar was set back by a small incident in the mud and dropped far back into the middle of the group. Meanwhile, Peeters bridged the gap to van Aert to make it two Vastgoedservice riders on the attack.

 

Tom Meeusen was now leading the chase and the peloton now started to split. While the Telenet-Fidea rider bridged the gap to the leaders, Jim and Bart Aernouts formed the first chase group while Sven Nys led the main group a little further back.

 

At the first passage of the finish line, the front trio were 5 seconds ahead of the Aernouts while Nys had now put his teammate Sven Vanthourenhout on the front of the peloton that was 4 seconds further adrift. Van der Haar had lost a bit of contact and was suffering in a group a few seconds further behind.

 

Vanthourenhout brought the Aernouts back into the fold but they failed to get any closer to the front trio. Here Peeters had taken over the pace-setting from teammate van Aert while Meeusen was hanging onto the back of the group.

 

As the main group still lost ground to the leaders, Kevin Pauwels took over the pace-setting but when he crossed the line at the end of the second lap, the group was 18 seconds behind. Nys and van der Haar were now in a second group that had slightly lost contact with the bunch.

 

In one of the many muddy sections, Meeusen was starting to suffer while the Vastgoedservice pair of van Aert and Peeters both seemed to be comfortable. Howeverm the Telenet-Fidea captain managed to stay in contact as the front trio continued to increase their advantage.

 

At the same time, Nys was still drifting backwards and while van der Haar was trying to rejoin the main group on his own, the Belgian champion was being passed by several riders. Pauwels had now distanced the rest of the peloton and as he crossed the line at the end of the third lap, he was just 10 seconds behind. The peloton was at 30 seconds and both van der Haar and Nys had regained contact.

 

In the fourth lap, van Aert finally dropped the hammer and neither Peeters nor Meeusen could keep up with him. The youngster split the group to pieces as he created a big gap to Meeusen who was his nearest chaser.

 

Meanwhile, Philipp Walsleben had attacked in the main group and he had made the peloton explode. With Sven Vanthourenhout and Wietse Bosmans glued to his wheel, he tried to bridge the gap to Pauwels who was still desperately trying to take a spot on the podium.

 

At the end of the fourth lap, van Aert had already distanced Meeusen by 12 seconds while Peeters was 20 seconds behind. Pauwels was 2 seconds further adrift while Walsleben and Vanthourenthout were at 42 seconds, with Bosmans a little further back. Nys was now 55 seconds behind and was about to lose his overall lead in the Bpost Bank Trofee series.

 

Meeusen was now riding away from Peeters but he failed to get any closer to the impressive van Aert. Meanwhile, Pauwels had also lost his momentum and had a hard time closing the small gap to Peeters in the battle for the final spot on the podium.

 

As they approached the end of the next lap, Pauwels finally made the junction but they could no longer hope for the win. Meeusen was 23 seconds behind at the crossing of the line while the pair were at 34 seconds. Walsleben and Vanthourenhout had been joined by Gianni Vermeersch and van der Haar but they were almost a minute behind while a bigger group with Nys was at 1.07.

 

Van Aert continued to demolish the opposition and as they had completed another lap, the talented youngster was almost a minute ahead of Pauwels and Peeters while Meeusen was still in between. Van der Haar had been dropped from his group and was about to get caught by Nys who had dropped his companions and was starting to move forward.

 

At the start of the penultimate lap, Meeusen was 42 seconds behind van Aert and now seemed to be guaranteed the second place. Pauwels and Peeters were at 1.07 while Walsleben, Vanthourenhout and Vermeersch were 1.30 behind. Nys had caught van der Haar but as they were 1.50 behind, his lead in the Bpost Bank Trofee series had been taken by van Aert.

 

It was now clear that Meeusen and van Aert were in a class of their own and the rest of the peloton was getting distanced significantly. At the start of the final lap, the difference was 54 seconds while Pauwels and Peeters were at 1.32. However, Walsleben was now riding himself back into contention for the podium and he had reduced his deficit to the pair to just 7 seconds while Vermeersch and Vanthourenhout had been dropped. Nys led a group of four riders that were a massive 2.17 behind while van der Haar had dropped even further back.

 

The final lap developed into a procession for van Aert but he had no time to enjoy his victory. With the overall standings being decided on time, he had to ride full gas all the way to the line and finished the race 1.07 ahead of Meeusen. Peeters managed to drop Pauwels to take the final spot on the podium while Walsleben never made the junction and had to settle for fifth. A disappointed Nys rolled across the line with a time loss of 2.50 while van der Haar lost 3.30.

 

Result:

1. Wout van Aert 59.52

2. Tom Meeusen +1.07

3. Rob Peeters +1.40

4. Kevin Pauwels +1.50

5. Philipp Walsleben +2.02

6. Gianni Vermeersch +2.07

7. Sven Vanthourenhout +2.13

8. Joeri Adams +2.22

9. Jens Adams +2.27

10. Tim Merlier +2.31

 

Overall standings:

1. Wout van Aert

2. Sven Nys +1.50

3. Kevin Pauwels +1.56

4. Tom Meeusen +2.27

5. Lars van der Haar +5.46