Baestaens makes it two-in-a-row

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Vincent Baestaens won the second round of the Men's Under 23 World Cup in Kalmthout, Belgium. On a snow-covered, half-frozen and half-muddy course, the Belgian bested his compatriot Wietse Bosmans (Belgium) and Dutchman Lars van der Haar in a long sprint.

After claiming both wins in the World Cup Baestaens has thus strengthened his overall lead. Previously second-placed Marcel Meisen (Germany) crashed at the start and did not finish, causing him to drop to seventh place overall. Van der Haar moved up to second overall, 30 points behind Baestaens, while Bosmans is five points further down in third place.

"This is great although I wasn't feeling strong early on, after riding with the professional riders yesterday [in the Scheldecross]," Baestaens said. "Luckily, it all came down to the last part of the race. Van der Haar finished third twice now and he's going to be my biggest rival for the overall win."

The eventual top three quickly distanced the rest of the field on the fast course near Antwerp. Despite several attacks, none of these three riders was able to distance his rivals. Going into the last lap, Van der Haar made an error, which forced him to chase down a twenty-metre gap on the two Belgians.

After the race, Bosmans wondered why Baestaens opted to stay on his wheel. "He didn't want to take a pull. Eventually he entered the forest first and I lacked the power to overtake him one more time," Bosmans said.

For Baestaens it was a tactical choice not to work in order to keep Van der Haar at a distance. "I did not want to take a pull because Lars would come back anyway. I choose to save one more cartouche for the last lap. I knew that I could get a gap of five metres if I took one of the last corners full on; it worked," Baestaens said.

Bosmans was disappointed not to win in front of his home crowd in Kalmthout. "I'd rather have won the race but it was tactical and decided by small mistakes," Bosmans said.

Third placed Lars van der Haar was pleased that he played his part in a race that he had picked out as a major target. "The good thing is that I lived up to my expectations to race for the victory. Of course I preferred to win but I went too hard into a corner during the penultimate lap," Van der Haar said.

Elia Silvestri (Italy) was best of the rest, 17 seconds behind the winner and just two seconds in front of Matthieu Boulo (France) and Joeri Adams (Belgium). The latter, a former junior world champion, is now fourth place overall in the World Cup. Freshly-crowned US champion Danny Summerhill crashed on his injured shoulder but seemingly without serious damage. Summerhill finished a distant 21st, two spots ahead of his usual rival in the US, Zach McDonald.

Next week the third round of the World Cup is once again held in Belgium. Heusden-Zolder hosts the third of five rounds and Baestaens will be there to defend his lead.