Pauwels triumphs in Zolder

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Kevin Pauwels (Telenet Fidea) broke through the cyclo-cross dominance of the triumverate of Niels Albert (BKCP Powerplus), Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet - Colnago) and Zydenek Stybar (Telenet Fidea) on Saturday with a win at the World Cup in Zolder. The venue was the same as when he became the junior World Champion in 2002. On a fast course up and around the Terlaemen car race track, the timid 25-year-old Belgian grabbed his second elite career victory after taking the initiative early on.

Pauwels ended up leading the race with two Rabobank men and World Champion Albert, and then started a four-lap solo attack during which he held off Albert. The latter still had a good day when considering the World Cup standings; co-leader Stybar dropped 20 points after finishing sixth.

The winner handed the victory flowers to his grandmother before talking about his success. "I'm very happy. It's my second victory with the pros, and the fact that it is a World Cup puts it a level above my victory in Overijse last year," Pauwels said.

"I got away well with [Bart] Aernouts and [Gerben] De Knegt and rode tempo, but suddenly Albert was there. On a technical section I shook him off. I suffered a lot. It was the longest cyclo-cross I've ridden in my life," Pauwels said after grabbing the victory in the one-hour race.

The Belgian didn't plan to rest on his laurels and is now targeting the Belgian National Championships in Oostmalle. "The champagne will be for after the season."

The decisive moment in the race came during the sixth lap with a crash from Nys. At that moment, Pauwels was leading the race together with De Knegt and Aernouts. Albert took the initiative in the chase group and was closing the 16-second gap together with Stybar and Nys.

When Nys crashed on a tricky drop, he held up Stybar and thus allowed Albert to get rid of his World Cup series rival. Albert bridged up to the leaders while Nys and Stybar were caught behind other chasers. Though Albert made it to the front, he didn't stay there for long since Pauwels quickly attacked.

"I needed half a lap to recover, but I didn't have time to do that since Pauwels accelerated right away. The gap remained the same for a while but I couldn't close it down," Albert said.

Looking back at Nys' crash, Stybar didn't want to blame the Belgian champion, even though Nys then opted to sit back and recover before grabbing third place after finding his legs again in the last lap. "That's cross," Stybar concluded. "When Sven crashed, I knew it was over. I was having a bad day but from then on mentally it was over, too.

"I was riding my own race, and it was Nys' right to sit on the wheels half the race, saving energy. It's not the end of the world. I lost some points for the World Cup, but it is still possible [to win the overall]," Stybar said.

Nys explained that he needed time to weigh his chances after his crash, yo-yo-ing between easing off and saving energy for tomorrow's race in Diegem. "I crashed on my right knee, and it hurt a lot. I thought about tomorrow and the [Superprestige] lead I'm defending over there. During the last lap, I was able to move from 10th to third position, so it's confirmed that my form is alright. Now I have to wait and see how my knee will react to the crash," Nys said.

The Belgian champion was surprised to see that Pauwels was able to hold off Albert in Zolder. "Before and even during the race, I was convinced that this was Albert's course, given it's a power course good for clocking steady lap times. It's a major surprise to me, and it will stick in my mind. Pauwels showed that beating Albert on a course like this is possible," Nys said.

Albert wasn't as impressed with his defeat as Nys was. "Only Pauwels finished ahead of me. All the others were dropped quite easily," Albert said. "Kevin will not blame me for saying that he isn't there all the time. Last week he finished 32nd in Kalmthout," Albert said.

Pauwels' win today made up for that poor showing - at least in his own mind. "I don't know why I was so bad over there; this time I wasn't sliding away that much," Pauwels said. The quiet Belgian will soon forget about Kalmthout as he cherishes his breakthrough performance in Zolder.

The penultimate round of the World Cup will happen in Roubaix, France, on January 17.

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