It was the battle within the battle in Herentals: Lars van der Haar versus Eli Iserbyt, and then in the overall ranking of the X2O Trophy. The Dutchman was two seconds ahead of his Belgian opponent in advance, but afterwards it was really the Belgian who was honored as the leader of the regularity classification.
Iserbyt knew what he had to do in the first round, where bonus seconds were up for grabs on the first pass. Toon Aerts, who later had a puncture, took off like a rocket and grabbed the maximum loot, while Iserbyt managed to pick up ten seconds behind him. With this he took over the lead from Van der Haar, who had been riding in the Belgian’s wheel for a long time. Ultimately, the driver of Baloise Trek Lions capped, finishing more than half a minute behind his opponent.
And so Iserbyt, who saw teammate Michael Vanthourenhout win, turned his deficit into a lead. Despite nerve pain in his back that bothered him, which was also partly responsible for a nasty fall. ‘I wasn’t really involved in that match because my left leg was bothering me a lot because of the nerve pain. That’s something I’ve been wanting to work on for the past three years. I tried to fix that, but it didn’t really work,” he said afterwards In the Leader’s jersey.
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Iserbyt provides text and explanation about nerve pain
‘So those two climbs of the Ski Mountain were very difficult for me, because I mainly try to work on my right leg. That’s what the fall had to do with, because I lost concentration a bit,” said Iserbyt, who explained his nerve pain. ‘It’s something that comes and goes. That started three years ago and I have it under control, but sometimes it flares up again. That was the case now. It concerns the nerve from the back to the left leg, which makes it difficult to apply full force.’
Iserbyt generally has little to complain about, with itself as the X2O leader and Vanthourenhout as the winner in Herentals. ‘That’s great. For myself it was a little less in the beginning, because I was unable to do anything for about ten days in September due to a mouth infection. But it’s good that we have now won the last four races, which is actually phenomenal.’
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