Albert seals World Cup with Hoogerheide win

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A third UCI cyclo-cross World Cup win was more than enough for Belgian champion Niels Albert (BCKP-Powerplus) to clinch the overall series 7victory. The 24 year-old Belgian gapped Kevin Pauwels (Telenet-Fidea) during the seventh lap on the slippery muddy course and he didn't allow his compatriot to bridge back up in the closing two laps.

Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet) won the battle for the remaining podium spot from world champion Zdenek Stybar (Telenet-Fidea) at half a minute behind winner Albert.

For Albert it is the fourth consecutive win in Hoogerheide where he won the Men U23 race in 2008, the elite men's world championships in 2009 and the two World Cup rounds that were organized since then. After winning the race, Albert surprised by saying he wasn't having great legs during the race on Sunday afternoon.

"I didn't have the sensations that I needed to ride a race," Albert said. Early on that was apparent since Albert wasn't featuring in the top 10.

Stybar had a fast start and quickly created a 20 second gap on a large group led by Timothy Johnson (Cannondale). "The others weren't slowing down but I figured that it was best for me to ride my own pace in front while I had the chance," Johnson told Cyclingnews.

Albert noticed that the efforts from Johnson and later Pauwels weren't enough to bring back leader Stybar. "We were not taking time back on Stybar until I led the chase after moving up in the group," Albert said. Despite taking time back on the leader Albert wasn't happy with the lack of support in the pursuit on world champion Stybar.

"I know that I wasn't going to lose the World Cup today but I didn't want to lose the race because others didn't want to co-operate in the chase. I told the guys in the pit that I would try one more time to get back to Stybar and if it wouldn't work out I would take my foot of the gas.

"I simply can't believe that Kevin wasn't able to do a bit of work because later in the race I gapped him and he was able to stay within ten seconds for several laps," Albert said.

It doesn't happen too often that once Stybar is brought back after creating such a big gap. The Czech rider explained that the training efforts of the past few weeks may have taken their toll during the second half of the race. "I made too many mistakes because I was no longer feeling fresh. I'm actually never feeling good in Hoogerheide while I'm always feeling great one week later at the world championships," Stybar said.

With less than three laps remaining Albert had another acceleration left in his legs. Stybar, Nys and Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Revor) were quickly dropped but Pauwels remained within reach. The gap never grew up to more than 10 seconds but it was enough for Albert to win once again in Hoogerheide.

Pauwels was second at 6 seconds from Albert. Nys and Stybar battled for third place and it was Nys who won the prestige duel. "It's always better to finish on than off the podium. Last week I wasn't able to respond on any acceleration while today was much different. On both occasions I finished third but today that was a well-deserved result; I'm happy," Nys said.

After a great start Johnson lost a bit of ground during the second half of the race and he eventually finished 16th. Jonathan Page (Planetbike) made the best of his race after a not-so-great start by finishing twentieth. Fellow US-riders James Driscoll (Cannondale) and Jeremy Powers (Cannondale) finished respectively 28th and 36th. British rider Ian Field (Hargroves Cycles) was 35th.

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