Laurens Sweeck crowns himself king of the sand in Koksijde and wins the fifth victory of the season, young Tibor Del Grosso finishes second

The Duinencross in Koksijde is a true cyclocross classic, and this is also reflected in the impressive track record. Last year Mathieu van der Poel won with a minute and a half (!) in advance, but this year no world champion on the hill: the Dutchman still has too much pain in his rib. And he wasn’t the only one, runners were dying like flies in the last few days. Michael Vanthourenhout and Lars van der Haar also declared bankruptcy, as did Thibau Nys this morning.

This opened the door for others to add this beautiful cross to 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 victory) that he could ride well on sand. Additionally, he won the Sven Nys GP on Wednesday, making his lead in the X2O standings seem more and more insurmountable.

Dream immediately for Vandeputte

However, Vandeputte was immediately allowed to put aside his dream of victory: from the first corner, like many others, he was on the ground. How sad for someone who is having a good season. But don’t worry about Alpecin-Deceuninck, with the talented Tibor Del Grosso another man from their team has taken the lead. Laurens Sweeck was the only one in the peloton who was able to keep his wheel in the initial phase, and both gained several tens of meters on Pim Ronhaar and Toon Aerts, among others. Eli Iserbyt, like Vandeputte, did not compete for victory, he only crossed the finish line after the second lap, about forty seconds later than the first ones.

(learn more below the article)

Discovery of Del Grosso

Lap after lap it became clearer that we had to look for the winner with the duo in the lead. Ronhaar briefly tried to close the gap, but quickly had to give up this 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 take his first victory with the big boys today? In recent weeks, he has already surprised with places of honor in Diegem and Namur, but he has excelled even more on the sand. For a moment, he even looked like he could distance himself from Sweeck, but he took the plunge.

However, the experienced cyclo-cross rider could not immediately break away from the young Dutchman either. At times, Sweeck seemed to be gone for good, but the skilled Del Grosso – despite a few mistakes – didn’t give up. At the start of the penultimate lap, they crossed the line almost fraternally next to each other. In the meantime, Toon Aerts had become the only candidate for third place.

Sweeck crosses the finish line

In the middle of this penultimate lap, it was the reward for our compatriot: after a hiccup with the youngster, Sweeck could 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 boast a solid motocross, his name will certainly continue to be heard in the motocross world in the weeks to come…