Pauwels stunning in Tabor

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With an impressive long solo effort on a fast course Belgian rider Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Revor) won the second round of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in Tabor, Czech Republic. World champion Zdenek Stybar (Quick Step Cycling Team) held off Pauwels' teammate Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Revor) for second place, 32 seconds behind.

Pauwels takes over the lead in the World Cup from Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet-KDL) who finished fifth in Tabor.

"I went flat out together with Stybar but when he pitted I ended up alone in front even though I didn't want it that way. The speed dropped behind me, possibly thanks to Klaas.

"When I had half a minute I knew the victory was mine. This win felt a bit like the one in Heusden-Zolder last year when I was alone in front too although this time it was much longer. On a course like this I belong to the big four [riders]. On a tough course I'm happy with a top five result," Pauwels said on Sporza TV.

Pauwels powered away in the third lap with world champion and home rider Zdenek Stybar (Quick Step Cycling Team). Soon after their breakaway move, Stybar punctured and switched bikes. It cost him his position in front and Pauwels didn't hesitate to go flat out to keep him behind.

Stybar quickly bounced back and launched the chase behind, but couldn't close the final metres on Pauwels. One lap later Pauwels had eight seconds on Stybar and Vantornout and 15 seconds on a group with Nys, Mourey, Bart Aernouts (Rabobank – Giant-Offroad), Radomir Simunek, Jr, Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus), Tom Meeusen (Telenet-Fidea) and Steve Chainel (FDJ).

Albert got a bad start for the second week in a row, but this time not due to absent-minded officials. He moved up in the chase group during the fifth lap and he bridged back up with Stybar and Vantornout. The latter was the perfect teammate for Pauwels as he often moved up and slowed the group down.

With four laps to go Pauwels suddenly had 24 seconds on the nine chasers. Albert and Stybar tried a few more times to tear the group apart and gain back time on Pauwels, but Vantornout was always there to keep them under control. At the end of the fifth lap the duo looked back in the group and glanced at the clock and noticed their efforts were futile: Pauwels was 39 seconds up the road and all the other chasers were still there.

"I felt really strong today," Vantornout said. "It wasn't up to me to close the gap and nobody else got more than 10 meters from me. Sometimes I felt I could ride even faster and in the last two laps I raced along to shake off a strong Mourey."

With three more laps to go there were no more attempts to up the pace in the chase group and it was Vantornout who set a reasonable pace while his teammate was almost a minute ahead of him. Simunek figured he had a chance to please the home crowd and the Czech moved up. His acceleration created some damage and Simunek got away with Vantornout and Stybar. When the world champion took over the command only Vantornout was able to follow. This time Vantornout started taking serious pulls in front as Pauwels was out of reach.

Stybar and Vantornout gained a gap of 12 seconds on the other chase group where Chainel and Albert lost ground, while last week's winner Nys didn't have the punch to cause damage. While Pauwels cruised to the victory in the last lap Stybar powered away from Vantornout towards second place.

"I hoped to win today but Kevin Pauwels was the strongest," Stybar said. "Puncturing didn't help and I didn't know if I would be able to stay with him despite that feat. I tried to close the gap but it didn't happen. My legs felt slightly better than last week but the form isn't there yet."

Behind them Mourey and Nys fought for fourth place and it was the French champion who easily won the sprint. Meeusen and Aernouts grabbed sixth and seventh and then suddenly Bart Wellens (Telenet-Fidea) popped out of nowhere to grab ninth place ahead of Chainel. Enrico Franzoi (Selle Italia Guerciotti) rode a great last lap to finish eleventh, just ahead of Albert who ran out of gas in the final.

In the background, Jeremy Powers was riding as the top North American, but was unable to keep up with Wellens when he was launching his comeback into the top 10 after a bad start. Powers clocked constant lap times and eventually it resulted in a 15th position at the finish line.

Half a minute later Johnson finished seventeenth after fighting back from a bad start that put him into 30th place. An even worse start was the verdict for Jamey Driscoll (Cannondale/Cyclocrossworld). He was held up by an early crash from Tommy Nielsen (Denmark) and it put him out of the top 50 during the first lap.

Nevertheless Driscoll started riding at a steady pace and eventually he turned into the last corner of the race in 32nd position, trying to beat Martin Zlamalik (KDL-Trans) in the sprint. Sadly enough Driscoll went down in the corner and his chain dropped. The unlucky American was forced to run towards the finish line and he eventually threw his bike just ahead of Jiri Polnicky (Sunweb-Revor) in 36th place.

Full Results

Elite men - World Cup standings after 2 rounds