Albert conquers Koksijde sand

Niels Albert (BCKP-Powerplus) continued to take advantage of his excellent form, winning the third round of the UCI World Cup series in the sand of Koksijde, Belgium, which will host the 2012 world championships.

The Belgian surged clear of the other big names around half way through the race and disappeared on the up and down course.

Bart Wellens (Telenet-Fidea) tried to close the gap as Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet) and Zdenek Štybar (Telenet-Fidea) marked each other but he faded and Stybar managed to pass him on the final lap. Wellens then stumbled on a slight rise, hindering Nys and allowing Stybar go clear to secure second place, 27 seconds behind Albert and just ahead of Nys.

Stybar still leads the overall classification of the World Cup but Albert took back 10 points and he's now trailing the world champion by just 15 points.

“I knew I would get back on winning ways one day; today was that day,” Albert said in the post-race interview with Sporza.

Tumultuous start

After a tumultuous start, the first lap was marked by the presence of the lesser-names of the sport at the front of the race, with Christophe Pfingsten (Van Vliet) hitting the front after the long start area. Albert had a bad start and came through outside the top-30 but didn’t panic. “I didn't start well but I managed to move up quite easily,” Albert said.

Once he joined the front of the race a lead group of nine riders formed. The race was decided just before halfway the race when Albert made a counter-attack after Nys' acceleration was slowed by a dropped chain.

“I saw Sven standing there but I just went past Gerben de Knegt because I knew he wouldn’t go well through the sand that was coming up. I wanted to create a selection as we were still riding in a large group. It's better to ride alone at your own pace,” Albert said.

It took a while before the chase of Albert got going and by that time he had a five second gap, although there were still four laps remaining on the demanding sandy course. Wellens led the chasers but one lap later the gap had grown to 13 seconds. During the following lap it grew even more, with Albert carving out half a minute on a group including Nys, Stybar, Wellens, Kevin Pauwels (Telenet-Fidea) and Bart Aernouts (Rabo-Giant Offroad). In that chase group there was some annoyance about the lack of space on the course, especially for Nys. “The race was ruined. When you were third in the group at a dune run-up there was a good chance you came to a standstill and eventually ended up chasing 10 seconds behind,” Nys said.

Going into the last lap Wellens had a comfortable gap over rivals Nys, Stybar and Aernouts in the battle for second place. It would've been the first podium in a World Cup for the experienced Belgian this season but he faded in the latter stages of the race. “Someone who shouldn't chase me down, chased me down. Then I made a mistake in the sand. I couldn't click out of my pedal and crashed. By that time the podium was gone,” Wellens told Cyclingnews. Stybar took advantage of the delay and blasted clear to secure second place and secure his lead in the World Cup. Nys was hindered by Wellens' crash and settled for third place.

Johnson and Page suffer in the sand

US riders Timothy Johnson (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld) and Jonathan Page (Planet Bike) didn't have a great day on the course that will be used for the 2012 world championships. Johnson couldn't take advantage of his front row start position and ended up riding in 33rd position. The US champion couldn't move up and eventually pulled out with two laps to go. Page started much better and rode in the front group after the first lap. After the race Page said he was hit by cramp with still three thirds of the race to go and after making a couple of mistakes, he faded and eventually finished 21st.