Wout Van Aert (Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace Continental Team) grabbed the victory at the inaugural round of the 2015-2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The first ever American World Cup round featured a night-time races.

The soft grasslands of the Desert Breeze Soccer Complex proved to be a stroll in the park for young Wout Van Aert. One day after turning 21 the Belgian rider started his solo ride to the victory at more than two laps from the finish. He won CrossVegas ahead of last year’s winner Sven Nys (Belgium) and Men U23 World Champion Michael Vanthourenhout (Sunweb-Napoleon Games).

For two laps the Elite Men’s race featured a large peloton up front with few riders dropping away. During the third lap of racing Michael Vanthourenhout surged away, with his team-mates setting a slow pace in the main group. The 21-year-old collected a gap of more than half a minute with no other teams seemingly interested in spending energy in a chase. Meanwhile last year’s overall World Cup winner Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Napoleon Games) lost ground due to a crash while trying to ride the stairs. Sven Nys and Wout Van Aert surged forward in the fourth lap, and halfway through the race bridged the gap up to Vanthourenhout. US Champion Jeremy Powers and Lars van der Haar (Giant-Alpecin) were trailing the three leaders by 20s with three laps to go.

Early on in the sixth lap, with more than two laps to go, Van Aert hammered up the only longer ascent of the CrossVegas course. Vanthourenhout quickly dropped back and a few moments later 39 year-old Nys also cracked. The gap was quickly up to 15s and from there the battle for victory was over. Van Aert offered himself a great birthday present as he took the second World Cup round victory of his career. Nys was clearly pleased with second place at 23s. Vanthourenhout stood tall for third place 40s down on Van Aert. The sprint for fourth place was won by Van der Haar ahead of Pauwels and Powers.

Result:

1. Wout van Aert

2. Sven Nys

3. Michael Vanthourenhout

4. Lars van der Haar

5. Kevin Pauwels

6. Jeremy Powers

7. Laurens Sweeck

8. Jens Adams

9. Corne van Kessel

10. Gianni Vermeersch