The Duinencross in Koksijde is a true classic in cyclo-cross, and this is also reflected in the impressive honors list. Last year Mathieu van der Poel won with a lead of one and a half (!) minutes, but this year no world champion on the coast: the Dutchman is still experiencing too much trouble in his rib. And he wasn’t the only one, the riders were dying like flies in recent days. Michael Vanthourenhout and Lars van der Haar also declared bankruptcy, just like Thibau Nys this morning.
It opened the door for the others to put this beautiful cross on their list of achievements. As favorites we mainly looked at Laurens Sweeck and Niels Vandeputte – real sand specialists – but Eli Iserbyt had also proven earlier this season in Antwerp (with a win) that he could ride well in sand. Moreover, he won the GP of Sven Nys on Wednesday, making his lead in the X2O classification increasingly seem unbridgeable.
Immediately dream away for Vandeputte
However, Vandeputte was immediately allowed to put away his dream of winning: already in the first corner, like many others, he was on the ground. What a downer for the man who is having a good season. But don’t worry for Alpecin-Deceuninck, with top talent Tibor Del Grosso, another man from their team took the lead. Laurens Sweeck was the only one of the pack who could keep his wheel in the initial phase, and the two of them gained several tens of meters on Pim Ronhaar and Toon Aerts, among others. Eli Iserbyt, like Vandeputte, would not compete for victory, he only crossed the line after the second lap about forty seconds later than the front runners.
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Discovery Del Grosso
It became clearer lap after lap that we had to look for the winner with the duo at the front. Ronhaar made a brief attempt to close the gap, but soon had to give up that battle. Halfway through the race, the lead of the first pursuers was almost a minute.
Del Grosso has already won four races with the U23s this season, could he book his first win with the big boys today? In recent weeks he has already surprised with places of honor in Diegem and Namur, but he excelled even more in the sand. For a moment he even seemed to be able to distance himself from Sweeck, but he jumped the gun.
However, the experienced cyclo-cross rider was also unable to immediately pull away from the young Dutchman. Occasionally Sweeck seemed to have left for good, but the deft Del Grosso – despite a few mistakes – did not just give up. At the start of the penultimate lap, they crossed the line almost brotherly next to each other. In the meantime, Toon Aerts had become the only candidate for third place.
Sweeck gets it over the line
Halfway through that penultimate lap, it was the prize for our compatriot: after a hiccup with the youngster, Sweeck was now able to finally distance himself. He can thus add his fifth victory of the season: only world champion Van der Poel does as well. Del Grosso can look back on a strong motocross, his name will certainly continue to be heard in the motocross environment in the coming weeks…
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