Van Eyndt wins men's 30-34 championship

The rain and mud gave way to snow, wind and frozen ruts today at the UCI Masters Cyclo-cross World Championships at Louisville, Kentucky's Eva Bandman Park.

The morning featured the final seeding heats prior to the start of championship racing. In the men’s 35-39 race, Grant Berry (Cycleution/Stevens Bikes) won heat one and Scott Frederick (Inland Construction) won heat 2. Randall Root (Evolution Cycling Club P/B Long & Foster) won heat one of the men’s 55-59 race while Jeff Townsend (Plus 3 Network) took heat two. They will contest their final races later this weekend.

Championship racing began when the 30-34 men kicked off the first race for the rainbow jersey. In a race complicated by frozen, muddy ruts, wind and frigid temperatures, Belgian Sven Van Eyndt took the hole shot and was never far off the front of the field for the duration of the race. Behind him Americans Thomas Turner (Jamis Factory Team) fought valiantly for the silver medal while Andy Reardon (Bob's Red Mill Cyclocross) fought off a hard-charging Spanish rider, Jose Dominguez, to hold on to the bronze medal. All top three riders were plagued by mechanicals and crashes.

On the last lap, Van Eyndt accelerated away from Turner and opened up a six-second gap that the American could not close down. Behind Turner the battle for the final podium spot was heating up. Reardon, who turned in the three fastest lap times of the day, had found himself on the front of the race before crashing and dropping 20 spots. After riding back up through the field Reardon was caught by Dominguez. The Spaniard went down in the sand and Reardon rode away clean to claim the final step on the podium.

Full Results