Nys powers to victory at Scheldecross

While Sven Nys had his chance at a Scheldecross victory in 2010 ruined by a last-lap mechanical, this year everything went his way as he soloed to victory in Antwerp.

With two laps to go the contenders for victory had been reduced to three, with Nys accompanied by Telenet-Fidea teammates Tom Meeusen and Rob Peeters in the race lead. Nys, however, took advantage of his considerable power and bike handling skills to ride away from the Telenet-Fidea duo on a lengthy sand section. Heading into the final lap Nys held a five second lead over Meeusen and a 12-second margin on Peeters.

While Meeusen narrowed the gap to Nys on the wide-open sections of grass and asphalt, Nys continued to apply pressure in the sand to keep Meeusen at bay. Nys took no chances on the final lap, choosing to dismount and run the barriers rather than bunny-hop them as he had done all race, and crossed the finish line alone to claim Scheldecross for the third time in his career.

Meeusen followed in second place at eight seconds while Dieter Vanthourenhout (BKCP-Powerplus) passed Peeters on the final lap to claim third, 14 seconds behind Nys. Vanthourenhout finished in fourth eight second later.

Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Revor), the top-ranked 'cross rider in the world on the most recent UCI standings, crashed and wasn't a factor in the race, ultimately recovering to finish fifth.