Boulo outsprints Van der Haar

France's Matthieu Boulo has won the seventh round of the men’s Under 23 World Cup on home soil in Pontchâteau. The 21-year-old French champion outsprinted European champion Lars van der Haar (Netherlands) for the victory. Matteo Trentin (Italy) was best of the rest at half a minute from the leading duo. Belgian pro rider Vincent Baestaens finished sixth in France and remains World Cup leader.

After a fast reconnaissance lap with a compact peloton, Trentin was one of the few riders who could keep the pace high. The Italian created a gap over the rest of the pack for two laps. Behind him Boulo had another acceleration in his legs and going into the third lap he chased Trentin down. Van der Haar was the only rider capable to stay near Boulo, while Trentin faded and was later caught by a group with Baestaens, Joeri Adams (Belgium), Jim Aernouts (Belgium), Mike Teunissen (The Netherlands), Ole Quast (Germany) and Irwin Gras (France).

Van der Haar needed a couple of laps to catch up with Boulo but during the sixth lap the two got together. About 45 seconds behind the leading duo Trentin launched a solo counter-attack.

Whilst the duo in front was looking for their second breath they knew that nobody would come back at them from behind. Trentin battled for third place with a gap of 10 seconds over Teunissen while the rest of the chasers followed further behind.

The duo in front headed for a sprint which was surprisingly won by Boulo. Trentin held on to his gap over the other chasers and claimed his first podium result of the season in the World Cup. Adams won the sprint of a large group for fourth place holding off Teunissen, Baestaens, Gras, Silvestri, Aernouts, Vinnie Braet (Belgium) and Jimmy Turgis (France).

In the World Cup standings Baestaens lost 20 points on Van der Haar and now has only a five point lead. Formerly second place Wietse Bosmans (Belgium) had an off-day in Pontchâteau and his 18th position puts him back into fourth place. Boulo is now third at 21 points from Baestaens.

Van der Haar heads into next week's last World Cup round in Hoogerheide which is ridden on home soil knowing that he currently has much better form than Baestaens.