Stybar solos to World Cup win

World champion Zdenek Stybar (Telenet-Fidea) continued his early season domination with a victory today at the first round of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in Aigle, Switzerland. Stybar attacked halfway into the one-hour race and the 24-year-old Czech soloed to victory, remaining unbeaten this season with his sixth straight win.

"The form is really good," Stybar said. "Every race is difficult so I have to enjoy every win in this world champion's jersey because the form can fade. I still have some margin on my top form, though. I trained a lot during the last few weeks and now I'm going to recover from all those efforts in order to stay fresh."

Behind Stybar two young Belgians captured the remaining podium spots as Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) and Kevin Pauwels (Telenet-Fidea) claimed second and third respectively.

Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Revor) won the sprint for fourth place ahead of surprisingly strong Dieter Vanthourenhout (BKCP-Powerplus). Four Belgians finished in the top five but they couldn't keep the Czech from winning on the course next to the UCI's headquarters in Aigle.

French champion Francis Mourey (FDJ) showed grit and fought his way to a solid sixth place, outsprinting Sven Vanthourenhout (Sunweb-Revor) and Steve Chainel (Bouygues Telecom).

Belgian champion Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet) faded halfway into the race and finished in a disappointing ninth place. Bart Wellens (Telenet-Fidea) was dropped from the lead group due to a mechanical issue with his chain and ended the day in 10th place.

The four American representatives were never in contention for a top 10 result. Jonathan Page (Planet Bike) was the highest placed finisher in 19th while Jeremy Powers (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld) finished seconds later in 20th, having moved up six positions on the last lap. Jamey Driscoll (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld) finished in 24th and US champion Timothy Johnson (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld) crossed the line in 26th, 3:02 down on Stybar.

The race turned out to be a tactical battle for the opening half hour. Both Nys and Stybar led a large group over the fast and technical course but no major gaps were created. After five laps of racing 11 men remained in the lead group, but Stybar would soon pounce as he noticed some of his key rivals dropping back to the rear of the paceline. The Czech powerhouse set a furious tempo and slowly but surely whittled down his opposition until he found himself alone in the lead on the seventh of 11 laps.

The world champion gained 20 seconds on a chase group comprised of Vantornout, teammates Pauwels and Dieter Vanthourenhout and former world champion, 24-year-old Niels Albert. The latter struggled early in the race to keep up with the leaders but he steadily improved each lap; it was only his third race of the season after being troubled with a knee injury in September.

Albert gapped the rest of the chasers on the penultimate lap to secure second place, but Stybar remained just out of reach in the finale. Stybar won the season's first World Cup with a nine-second advantage over Albert, while Pauwels completed the podium five seconds later.