The venue sits below the village (Image credit: Getty Images)
Joris Nieuwenhais (Trek-Baloise Lions) made light of his lack of experience in the snow to deliver a hugely commanding performance at Val di Sole to clinch the first World Cup win of his career.
On a day when some high profile cyclocross racers Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) were not present, Nieuwenhuis led almost from the gun.
Second was last year's runner-up Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Deceuninck), with young Belgian racer Joran Wyseure (Crelan-Corendon) taking a notable third.
Nieuwenhuis was unreachable, following up on Manon Bakker's earlier victory in the Elite Women's race to make it two out of two for the Netherlands at Val di Sole.
Asked afterwards if it had been as easy as it looked, the 27-year-old Nieuwenhuis took no time to answer 'No'.
"My style always looks easy on TV, but of course, I'm always suffering as well. I just had to stay focused and concentrated, and then I knew I could do a good job because the form is good and I feel good on the bike. That was important today."
"I did BMX as a kid and I think that really helped me today to stay calm, stay easy and to have the technique to do this course."
"It was a very tough race," Vandeputte added, "physically tougher than last year and technically tougher as well. The circumstances were very different."
"In the first lap, I felt I could keep the same pace as him, but in the second I made too many mistakes, not really riding on the level you have to ride on to battle for the win. And then I just tried to stay consistent, but sadly he was a bit too strong today:"
The opening lap of the race saw Vandeputte and Nieuwenhuis immediately spearhead the 43-rider field, but Nieuwenhuis then pushed on alone even more quickly to gain a double-digit lead. Nieuwenhuis revealed earlier that he had not raced in the snow since he was a junior, but he certainly seemed to be having no difficulty on Sunday.
Heading into lap 2 of 7, Nieuwenhuis had an advantage of 16 seconds on Vandeputte, with their closest pursuer Laurens Sweeck (Crelan-Corendon) already nearly a minute behind and essentially reducing the battle for the victory to two. By the end of the second lap, though, Nieuwenhuis was proving to be in a class of his own.
A winner in Indianapolis early in the season, and in two more recent Prestige Rounds in Europe at Hoogstraten in November and Boom last weekend, Nieuwenhuis has shown superbly consistent form throughout the season. And at Val di Sole's supremely challenging course, despite his lack of experience in the snow, he made that count.
From almost the first lap, victory in the World Cup was effectively Nieuwenhuis to lose, there was something of a surprise in the battle for third as former U-23 World Champion Wyseure pulled clear of the chasing pack close to the halfway point to head for the final podium spot.
Meanwhile, Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels-Sauzen-Bingoal), the World Cup leader, was out of the running for victory in fifth. But by maintaining that position through to the finish, he at least picked up a healthy stack of points for the overall competition.
By lap four Nieuwenhuis had bolstered his lead to over 40 seconds, and he proceeded to deliver a masterclass in handling the snow. With the lines deepening in the snow and a relatively flat course, most of the riders seemed more than able to ride almost throughout the entire circuit, but Nieuwenhuis was always able to eke out a few more seconds' advantage on each segment. After a slower opening lap of 8:57, each one that followed was almost exactly the same time of 8-31, with an average speed of 21.1 kmh.
Egged on by the noisy Italian supporters despite the bitter cold and as the shadows lengthened across the mountains in the late afternoon, Nieuwenhuis had kept his advantage of 45 seconds to the end. Lapping rider after rider in the last turns, he was more than able to live his first victory to the full, high-fiving riders as he moved along the last barriers and home for a stunning first World Cup victory.
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