Van Aert wins CrossVegas, takes first World Cup leader’s jersey

Wout Van Aert (Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace) won the first-ever non-European UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup Wednesday under the sparkling lights of Las Vegas, Nevada, soloing to an impressive CrossVegas win ahead of fellow Belgians Sven Nys and Michael Vanthourenhout (Sunweb-Napolean Games).

Desert Breeze Soccer Complex, which hosted the ninth running of CrossVegas, lived up to its name Wednesday as winds whipped throughout the 67-minute race on the thick park grass.

The conditions didn’t appear to slow the riders, however, as the pack of 70 cruised over the course in one long, strung out line for the first several laps.

Although Tom Meeusen (Telenet-Fidea) won the hole shot and led early on during the first lap, it was Vanthourenhout who put in the first real attack of the race. The move netted him a gap that grew out to a maximum of 30 seconds.

“When I took 30 seconds, I really felt pretty good and I had hope for the end but then I saw two really strong riders coming and I said, ‘OK, I’ll hold back a little bit and then try to catch up,’” Vanthourenhout said.

The two approaching riders were Nys and eventual winner Van Aert, who said he knew with Vanthourenhout’s strength they could not leave him alone off the front for long.

“I know him from the youth categories in Belgium,” Van Aert said. “He’s a strong rider. He’s always difficult to catch back when he’s got a good pace.

“I knew we can’t wait long to make a move in the front,” Van Aert said. “And then I saw that Sven was in the front, and before in the race he was always a little bit more in the back. So I knew he was strong, and he wanted also to go in the front.”

Van Aert and Nys slowly reeled in Vanthourenhout after several laps of chasing, and once together the trio continued to open up its advantage over a group of about 15, who were being led by US champion Jeremy Powers (Rapha-Focus).

Vanthourenhout lost contact with Van Aerts and Nys with three laps to go, drifting back into no-man’s land while fighting to hold off the chase.

“I really tried to keep on as long as I could,” Vanthourenhout said. “But then at a certain moment I had to let them go. Then I said I would ride my own race and I kept my third place, which was really good.”

With Vanthourenhout gone from the lead, Van Aert quickly seized the moment and attacked Nys, gaining an advantage over his fellow Belgian and then pressing the issue. Nys trailed about 15-20 seconds behind, with Vanthourenhout still holding onto his third-place spot.

“I thought maybe I had to try more,” Van Aert said. “But after the first one I already had a gap. Afterwards it was just giving all I had. It was really difficult the last two laps to keep on pushing and keep up the pace, because it is a really heavy course. The ground is really heavy, and also a lot of wind on the field. It was a hard one, but I’m very happy to start the season like this.”

Meanwhile, Powers continued to do the work in the chase, and his efforts whittled the group down to just himself, Lars van der Haar (Giant-Alpecin) and 2014-15 World Cup winner Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Napolean Games). The two European riders were content to let Powers do the pulling, sitting in his slipstream and waiting to pounce at the finish.

Van Aert showed his class with a spectacular final two laps, holding off Nys by 23 seconds at the finish. Vanthourenhout came in 44 seconds down for third, while Van der Haar and Pauwels both slipped past Powers to round out the top five.

Van Aaert said he was especially proud to have the opportunity to wear the World Cup leader’s jersey next month during round two in Valkenburg.

“Last year I was two times the World Cup leader in the U23 category, but I had not the option to wear it because there was a world champion right there,” Van Aert said. “Right now it’s going to be the first time I can race in it, and it’s really something that I can look forward to, to do that in Valkenburg next month.

“I’m just really happy to start like this,” he said. “For every rider that is a little dream to do that, and it gives you a lot of confidence to keep doing the good work going into winter.”

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