Zdenek Stybar finished on the podium no less than 12 times in 13 races this season, but today in Hasselt, Belgium, he finally came out on top. Stybar beat his Telenet-Fidea teammate Kevin Pauwels and dominator Niels Albert in the third round of the Gazet van Antwerpen trofee. Sven Nys finished in sixth place.
A lead group with Stybar, Pauwels, Albert, Klaas Vantournout and Bart Aernouts dominated most of the race. Aernouts had risked a strong attack with three laps to go but 15 seconds was the most he could get, before paying for his efforts. He started to have trouble hanging on in the final lap. Those last six minutes of effort were dominated by Stybar, who rode the entire lap from the front.
He had several meters for the most part, but the others caught him at the final sand pit. He and Pauwels then held a small talk about tactics and sprinted to places one and two.
Both Albert and Nys crashed earlier in the race on the slick, grassy section. The interesting parcours also featured a couple of sand pits, but overall the route was very fast, with little need to get off the bike.
Nys also once again suffered from a material problem, losing 30 seconds in the process and dropping out of the front on no fault of his own.
In the GvA standings, Albert is now the sole leader with 70 points. He previously shared the pole position with Nys, but the latter is now three points behind. Stybar is only four points back in third, after reducing quite a bit of his deficit thanks to his win today.