Pauwels claims GVA Hasselt

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After a tactical race on a surprisingly dry and fast course, Kevin Pauwels (Telenet-Fidea) grabbed his first win of the season during the third round of the Gazet van Antwerpen Trophy. The Belgian held off teammate Zdenek Stybar and Belgian champion Sven Nys after a blistering fast last lap in Hasselt.

Pauwels' fastest lap time offered him an additional 1000 euro, while World champion Stybar remains in the lead of the GvA-Trophy.

“It's great,” winner Pauwels said. “During the race I didn't know if I was better since Nys and Stybar were also riding fast. The legs were good and the course suited me much better than those from the previous weeks.

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"At the pits I had more speed than the others and passed them. I knew I had to be in the lead at the sand section because the leader there would probably win the race,” Pauwels said.

The winner added that he was focused only on the day’s action rather than on the overall series, despite being the only rider within striking distance of Stybar. “I'm not busy with the overall standings. I can have a bad race too. I'll do the best I can and then we'll see what comes,” Pauwels said.

Meanwhile, Bart Wellens continued to improve, coming in fourth ahead of Rabo-Giant's Bart Aernouts, while former world champion Niels Albert rolled in behind for sixth.

While Flanders was stricken by floods last week, circumstances were rather different this week during the sixth edition of the ‘cross in Hasselt. A week ago the twisting course at the Japanese city park in Hasselt looked more like a Japanese lake. After three days of pumping 60000 litres an hour away from the course, the cyclo-cross peloton was able to tackle the almost dry and thus fast route.

Sunweb-Revor manager Jürgen Mettepenningen quickly saw three of his riders in the picture. Klaas Vantornout misjudged the first corner but somehow stayed on his bike, and in spite of hitting the barriers, he continued in the second half of the peloton. A few metres further on, however, the Belgian went down nevertheless. Vantornout was unable to continue and lost out on his second position overall in the GvA Trophy standings.

At the next corner Martin Zlamalik (Sunweb-Revor) spectacularly went over the handlebars at high speed. The Czech took teammate Sven Vanthourenhout (Sunweb-Revor) and Bart Aernouts (Rabo-Giant Offroad) down with him. Meanwhile up front, Stybar put the hammer down and the Czech got away with Albert, Nys and Pauwels. Radomir Simunek (BKCP-Powerplus), Bart Wellens (Telenet-Fidea) and Dieter Vanthourenhout (BKCP-Powerplus) were among those who bridged up during the following laps but they were left dangling at the back of the leading group.

By the end of the second lap, a hard-fought sprint for the bonus points had started. After the sand sector Nys created a gap on his rivals but Stybar returned just before the last corner. Nys and Stybar dug deep for the three points and eventually it was Stybar who overtook Nys on the line: three points for Stybar, two for Nys and one for Pauwels.

Despite an acceleration from Wellens, the unfortunate Aernouts recovered well from his crash and after clocking a long-lasting fastest lap time of 5:59 during the third lap, he bridged up to the leaders the next time around.

During the following laps, Rob Peeters (Telenet-Fidea), Thijs van Amerongen (AA Drink) and Tom Meeusen (Telenet-Fidea) bridged up to the eleven-man leader's group. The difference between riding at the front or the back of the group was huge, however, as the multiple corners offered the riders at the back little time to recover.

With three laps to go the six strongest riders were left in front: Aernouts, Albert, Nys, Pauwels, Stybar and Wellens were left in contention for the win. Nys opened up the gas during the penultimate lap with only Pauwels and Stybar following the Belgian champion swiftly.

The three remaining leaders hit the last lap with Pauwels taking the lead halfway through the circuit. Behind him, Nys and Stybar were fighting hard and when cornering into the all-important sand pit, Stybar moved into second place.

Pauwels successfully ploughed through the sand and after the last obstacle he had a gap on Stybar. On the asphalt section, Pauwels didn't slow down and went on to snatch his first win of the season.

Stybar persisted and although he fell short of the victory, his second place was enough to secure his lead in the GvA Trophy. Nys settled for third place ahead of Wellens and Aernouts; Albert finished sixth at almost twenty seconds behind Pauwels.

Meeusen won a direct duel with his rivals for World Cup selection by finishing seventh. Simunek came home just ahead of Belgians Rob Peeters and Dieter Vanthourenhout, while American representative Jonathan Page (Planetbike) didn't have a good start and he finished in a distant nineteenth place.

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