Cycling: Sven Nys (Crelan-AA Drink) showed the competition the rear wheel at the opening race of the Bpost Bank Trophy in Ronse and once again won the GP Mario De Clercq. Second place went to Matthieu van der Poel (BKCP Powerplus). Third was Klaas Vanornout (Sunweb-Napoleon Games).
Even before the finale, Nys had the reins in his hands and tackled the final rounds as a soloist. Behind him, Van der Poel tried in vain to catch up with the Belgian champions. However, the 19-year-old Dutchman successfully managed to keep a chasing trio of Vantornout, Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Napoleon Games) and Lars van der Haar (Giant-Shimano) at bay.
Nys went into the final lap with a lead of more than forty seconds on Van der Poel. However, he didn't show any weaknesses on the softened course and didn't let himself be disturbed by a fall. Van der Poel, who obviously had to pay tribute to his slow pace at the end, also defended his place. However, the fight for third place became exciting again. At the beginning of the final lap, Van der Haar pushed between Vantornout and Pauwels, but had to give way to the former Belgian champion in one of the running passages. Vantornout then pushed forward and steadily edged up to within two seconds of Van der Poel. Behind him, Pauwels defended his teammate's lead before he pushed past Van der Haar at the beginning of the penultimate corner and defeated him by a hair's breadth in the finish sprint.
In his first cyclocross race of the season, reigning world champion Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) finished eighth. Marcel Meisen (Kwadroo) was 14th, the German champion Philipp Walsleben (BKCP) 15th.