That was fairly evident in last weekend’s European Championships and it was obvious in this past Sunday’s Rapencross at Lokeren, the second round of the X2O Trofee. On the sixth of nine laps over the hilly 2.6 km course, Nys (Baloise Trek Lions) broke away from Laurens Sweeck (Crelan-Corendon), quickly opened a gap and was never troubled again. The 5-second gap to second-place Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Deceuninck Development) was no indication of his dominance, as the happy winner took the time in the final 200 m to celebrate. Vandeputte’s teammate Jente Michels, the under-23 European cyclo-cross champion, came in third, another 2 seconds back.
Asked after the race how it felt to win while riding in the European champion’s jersey, Nys said, “Every win is important for me, not because of riding the first time in this jersey. But just in general, winning is always important to me and it always means a lot. That’s why we train every day and we go to bed early and we eat what we have to eat.”
He benefitted from a lap-5 crash by the always dangerous Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen–Bingoal) who lost about 30 seconds after going down on a curve in a muddy section and apparently fouled up his chain. When he got back into his rhythm, Iserbyt was sitting tenth. He eventually finished fifth, 28 seconds behind the winner.
When Nys broke away, only Sweeck was able to follow but it was clear from the effort he was making to keep in touch that it would be just a matter of time before he would be left behind. That moment came midway on lap 6. At the end of that lap, Sweeck trailed Nys by 11 seconds, with a small group of pursuers, led by Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal), at 18 seconds. At the end of lap 7, Nys’s lead was 23 seconds while Sweeck had been caught and was in a fight for the podium, which he lost. He finished sixth, at 32 seconds.
“This was great,” Nys said, noting that he had already opened a gap on lap 2 but decided to hold back. “It was wise not to push the gas full on there but to let myself slide with the other guys. Eli’s fall was the moment to open the gas. My technique and my legs finally got into rhythm. It loosened up, and then I had to keep riding.”
It’s early days in the cyclo-cross season and Nys has yet to face van der Poel or van Aert but I think it’s safe to say that, barring serious injury, the young Belgian will eventually present a serious challenge to his elders, if not already this year.
However, Nys apparently doesn’t like riding in mud, for he did not take part in Monday’s Superprestige Jaarmarktcross in Niel, a race that was a feast for a true mudder such as Sweeck. The 30-year-old Belgian took off on his own early on the very first of eight laps and was never headed. The 62nd edition of this race saw the riders mount and dismount continuously on the 2,700 m course that had only 400 m of asphalt. The rest was mud, some of it ankle-deep, wet, and heavy sand.
After lap 1, Sweeck led by 5 seconds over Vandeputte and a surprisingly small group of pursuers, after a series of moguls had created an early bottleneck and opened up gaps in the peloton. Not only did the deep mud and changing terrain force riders to dismount often and carry their bikes but most riders changed their two-wheelers every two laps as the mud and sand collected on derailleurs and tyres. A lashing rain made the course slick and the mud deeper over the last three laps.
For the first four laps, the race was between Sweeck and Vandeputte who tried in vain to make up ground on the leader. By lap 5, he trailed by 21 seconds and had been joined by Iserbyt and the Spaniard Felipe Orts Lloret who had finished second in the European Championships eight days earlier.
In the final lap, Sweeck appeared to tire as his lead shrank to 9 seconds but he regathered himself as Iserbyt made a last, desperate attempt to catch him. That ended up costing him a podium finish, as first Vandeputte and then Orts passed the two-time Superprestige series winner. The Spaniard, who is having his best-ever season, had the most gas left in the tank and passed Vandeputte on a muddy section, eventually finishing second, 8 seconds behind Sweeck, with Vandeputte competing for the podium at 18 seconds, 11 seconds ahead of a visibly frustrated Iserbyt.
“I didn’t put [on] pressure initially,” Sweeck said after winning at Niel for the third time in five years. “I tried more than anything to find a good rhythm and take the obstacles nicely. That succeeded pretty well. But I didn’t expect to ride alone in the lead from the beginning to the end.”
He admitted tiring at the end after having ridden a hard race 24 hours earlier. “It was tough, I got tired, and the rain made the course treacherous. In the last laps, some mistakes crept in, so it was good that it was the last lap,” he said, adding: “Sunday I suffered and today (Monday) too but it all went just a bit better.”
After three of eight races, Vandeputte leads the Superprestige standings with 39 points with Lars van der Haar (Baloise–Trek Lions) at 36 and Vanthourenhout at 33. The X20 Trofee series is decided on time, like a season-long stage race. Van der Haar leads that competition with Iserbyt in second, 25 seconds adrift, and Nys sitting third, at 1:13.
