Albert claims World Cup victory in Rome

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An impressive solo ride from Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) in Rome, Italy, delivered him his second World Cup win of the season. In the sixth round of the World Cup, the 27-year-old Belgian left his last rivals behind in the third of eight laps.

Albert galloped through strong winds, a sudden heavy rain shower and then faced a late comeback from world champion Sven Nys (Crelan-AA Drink), World Cup leader Lars van der Haar (Rabobank Development Team) and French champion Francis Morey (FDJ.fr). Albert withstood all of it, keeping a small five seconds gap at the finish line in front of the grandstand of the somewhat desolated Capanelle hippodrome.

Van der Haar outsprinted Nys for second place, which sees the young Dutchman strengthen his overall lead in the World Cup as Philipp Walsleben (BKCP-Powerplus), previously second, had an off-day and could only manage an eleventh place finish in Rome. Albert now holds second place, albeit a massive 54 points behind World Cup leader Van der Haar, ahead of the final round in Nommay, France, in three weeks’ time.

“It was a very hard one. The track was very muddy with the rain of last night and today. It was a hard race,” Albert said. In the closing laps, Albert struggled. “On Friday we did a hard training and I was tired. On the last two laps, everything was hurting. Sven [Nys] is not unbeatable. They were coming but I was consolidating my advantage. It was tricky with those small rocks on the course.”

During the first laps of the race, Albert was already dominant. He featured in the lead group that quickly separated itself from the rest of the pack. The group included Albert, his teammate Walsleben, Mourey and Martin Bina (Kwadro-Stannah), with Mourey quickly shifting back on the second lap.

Having Walsleben in front was disastrous for the World Cup leader Van der Haar as he was riding outside the top 10, half a minute down on the leaders. “I was nervous for a muddy race like this one and I started with a Typhoon profile at the back. I didn’t have a good start, didn’t get going and was sliding away everywhere,” Van der Haar told Sporza. Little later he switched bikes to get better grip. “It turned out I had good legs and I started moving up.”

The race turned when Albert put the hammer down early on in the third lap, and soon he was alone in front. He quickly created a gap of fifteen seconds on Bina and Walsleben, who were caught by Mourey. Halfway through the race, Walsleben waved goodbye to his World Cup ambitions as he was dropped, and one lap later, he was overtaken by Van der Haar. The number two in the World Cup continued to lose ground for the remainder of the race. “I started my race optimistically but ended up not being so good. I had a minor crash and setback. I felt like I was the only rider who was sliding away. Hopefully I feel better in Nommay so I can hold on to my third place in the World Cup,” Walsleben said.

With three laps to go Van der Haar caught up with Bina and Mourey, who were only about twenty seconds behind lone leader Albert, with Thijs van Amerongen (AA Drink Cycling Team) and Sven Nys ten seconds further back.

Nys was clearly going well at this stage of the race. He dropped Van Amerongen and overtook fading Bina, and he suddenly caught up with Van der Haar halfway through the penultimate lap. When hitting the final lap, Albert only had 13 seconds in hand on Mourey, and just 17 seconds on Nys and Van der Haar. A rampant Nys soon caught Mourey, and the trio then set their sights on Albert. But the gap was too great even for the world champion, and Albert duly reached the finish line with a handful of seconds to spare over Van der Haar, who outsprinted Nys for second place.

“I tried to come back and that seemed to be working out but the race was one lap too short. Switching bikes was important. In the final laps I was riding around with a pressure of 1.2kg and that was ideal on a course that become more and more slippery. I had a lot of power to set the pace on the long straight sections. I’m satisfied even though I’m not winning,” Nys told Sporza.

Mourey settled for fourth place, well ahead of Bina. Meanwhile, Rob Peeters (Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace) recovered from a poor start to put in a solid ride that earned him a good sixth place, just ahead of Van Amerongen.

Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Napoleon Games) is struggling with illness and skipped the race in Rome in favour of a training camp in Calpe, Spain. He drops from third to fifth overall as both Albert and his teammate Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Napoleon Games) overtook him on Sunday afternoon. Pauwels had a poor start and suffered a mechanical in the second lap of the race that saw him slip back to thirtieth position, but he gamely fought back to take thirteenth place at the finish line.

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