Cycle cross: In the German mud, the next battle of the cyclist cross elite took place today at the World Cup in Zeven. In the end, the world champions cheered. In the women's category, Sanne Cant triumphed once again. Wout Van Aert was finally able to end the winning streak of opponent Mathieu Van der Poel. Not only did the mud help him, but above all a defect in the dominator. The German Marcel Meisen was a strong eighth.
Mud fight in Lower Saxony
For the second time a World Cup in cyclocross took place in Zeven. The absolute world elite were at the start – both for women and men. Unfortunately, the weather gods were not particularly kind to the athletes. It was already raining the day before, so that the very grassy track invited to a real mud fight. First in this fight went the juniors and the U23. The Dutchman Pim Ronhaar won the youngest. His compatriot Mees Hendrikx finished third behind the Czech Tomas Kopecky. The Swiss Loris Rouiller presented himself strong again in fourth place. Tom Lindner drove to the nine as the best German junior. Belgium dominated the U23 class. Eli Iserbyt triumphed over Thijs Aerts by almost a minute. Thomas Joseph and Yannick Peeters followed – also from Belgium. The Swiss Timon Rüegg and Kevin Kuhn finished at #12 and #13.
Cant wins again
At 13:30 p.m. the women started the race. Also today the top favorite Sanne Cant (Beobank-Corendon) was unstoppable. The Belgian was level with some of her rivals until just before the start of the last lap before she ignited the turbo. It almost seemed like she played with her opponents. At the finish she had a 23-second lead over Britain's Helen Wyman (Kona Factory Team), 43 over American Katherine Compton (Trek) and XNUMX over Czech Katerina Nash (Clif Pro Team).
BAAAMMM! 👊 Wereldkampioene @Sannecant does the opnieuw! The best in the World Cup of Zeven! 🏆🥇 #TelenetUCICXWC #Zeven pic.twitter.com/hwQpIXp7aE
— IKO-Beobank (@IKO_Beobank) November 25, 2017
Van Aert benefits from defect
In the men's World Cup there was finally another winner. Mathieu Van der Poel (Beobank-Corendon) - who has won all four World Cups so far - suffered a defect early in the race. The Dutchman lost more than half a minute as a result and had to roll up the field from behind. He also succeeded, but one of them was already gone at the front: Belgian Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Charles) tore a large gap in the first laps. Even Van der Poel was unable to close this gap in his race to catch up. World Champion Van Aert finished 47 seconds ahead of Van der Poel. Behind them, Toon Aerts (Telenet Fidea Lions) and teammate Corne Van Kessel finished third and fourth. The German Marcel Meisen (Steylaerts-Betfirst) can look forward to a strong eighth place.
Van Aert plots to win in Wereldbeker, unlucky Van der Poel tweede in Zeven https://t.co/pjo2J2VOPA #hlnsport pic.twitter.com/OPA6Zw9LZd
— HLN Sport (@hlnsport) November 25, 2017