Albert wins in Ronse

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About 10,000 cyclo-cross spectators gathered around the muddy Hotondberg in Ronse to attend the opening round of the Bpost Bank Trofee Veldrijden, the GP Mario De Clercq. World champion Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) claimed a hard-fought win just ahead of last year's winner Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Revor). Thanks to a first place at the intermediate sprint, it is Pauwels who becomes the first leader of the Trofee despite finishing four seconds short of Albert at the finish line.

"It was very hard course. There's no single meter for recovery. Halfway the race I felt that I was the strongest but in the end I struggled," Albert told Sporza.

Albert and Pauwels dominated the hilly race on the muddy meadows of the Hotondberg.

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The first half of the race was marked by a false start from Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Revor), who was later in the picture again but then had two crashes. "I'm not the most technical rider in the peloton. It was spectacular, but it didn't hurt me," Vantornout said. At the intermediate sprint, halfway the second lap, sole leader Pauwels took 15 bonus seconds while Albert grabbed five seconds for his third place. Later the world champion caught up with Pauwels, and together they headed off.

By then, Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet), who got a poor start, steadily moved out of the top 20 and led the chase on the leading duo at about 20 seconds. The gap increased a little lap by lap until halfway the race when Nys and Bart Aernouts (AA-Drink) realized they were never going to get back to the front.

In the second half of the race, Albert had the upper hand. He slowly gained a few metres on Pauwels, built up a lead of 11 seconds but then ran out of gas in the final laps. Eventually Albert reached the finish line with a small bonus on Pauwels. With Pauwels not far behind, he had nothing nothing left in his tank to celebrate his win.

Initially, it wasn't clear who would be the first leader since Pauwels finished at four or five seconds following Albert. If the gap was four seconds, then Pauwels would be leader, if it was up to five, then Albert would lead. While being interviewed by Sporza, Albert was informed that the final verdict favoured Pauwels. "The crap starts already. [...] If they don't know it after the first race. ... It changed five times in a few minutes," Albert said.

The new overall classification system awards riders for time gaps rather than their actual placing in a race. Albert acknowledged that it changed the racing style.

Despite finishing as runner-up at the finish line, Kevin Pauwels will not be disappointed with his performance in Ronse. He rode the fastest lap of the race, offering him a nice 1000-euro bonus and his intermediate sprint win eventually put him into the overall lead in the competition.

"I knew I had to finish within five seconds. I gave it all to get into that time gap. He was better in the running sections, especially at the end," Pauwels told Sporza.

About a minute later, an unemotional Nys crossed the finish line in third place. Last week's winner of the Superprestige race in Ruddervoorde was unable to mix in for the win and according to the 36-year-old, that was due to a false start.

"I made one mistake today, and it cost me my good start position. I shouldn't have started. It was a false start. Klaas goes and then stops. It happened and then my race was over. I rode around a bit frustrated during the first lap. Then I kept riding at 20 seconds. Then I focused on third place. I overtook half a peloton but the two others were gone. Like I said before, I will not focus on the classification and aim for victories," Nys said.

The next round in the series will be held on the Koppenberg in Oudenaarde in three weeks.

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