Overall contest couldn’t be closer with just one race to go
Kevin Pauwels (Telenet-Fidea) won the Krawatencross in Lille, Belgium, the penultimate round of the Gazet van Antwerpen (GvA) Trofee at the end of a highly tactical race. The 26-year-old just managed to outsprint his World champion teammate Zdenek Stybar on the line, with Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet) close behind.
The dry, sandy course around the edge of a lake meant that no one rider was able to impose himself during the race and led to a highly tactical struggle between the favourites.
A fast start from Nys and Stybar pulled Pauwels and Telenet-Fidea teammate Tom Meeusen clear in the first lap. The four were quickly joined by Belgian champion Niels Albert, with yet another Telenet-Fidea rider in Bart Wellens; Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Revor) and Jonathan Page (Planet Bike) were leading a large group just behind.
Constant accelerations from Nys and Albert meant that by the end of the second lap the original four riders were ahead, with Albert and Wellens close behind. Nys and Stybar taking turns to force the pace as the two caught up making six up front, with all the others now distanced.
On lap 4, having played the waiting game until now Pauwels made his move and managed to pull out a small gap on the others. He was quickly chased down by Nys with Albert, Stybar and Wellens strung out behind him; Meeusen, who had appeared fairly comfortable until this point, found himself being dropped.
Much of the rest of the race then followed a pattern of Nys and Stybar taking turns to force the pace. Pauwels managed to sit fairly comfortably behind them, but Albert and Wellens were repeatedly dropped before clawing their way back up to the front once more; with two teammates up ahead, Wellens was allowing Albert to do most of the work.
As they approached the line with 2 laps to go Wellens put in a sudden surge and pulled away. The two-time World champion initially opened up a healthy gap but the chase, led by Albert, caught him midway through the lap. Albert went straight over the top of Wellens but Stybar, Nys and Pauwels were in close attendance; Wellens managed to pull his way back up once more.
The five riders took the bell, marking the final lap, all together but almost immediately Stybar put in a powerful surge. The others managed to follow the World champion but on the wet sand of the lake beach he tried again. The others were right on his wheel once more; all his accelerations managed to do was open a small gap on Wellens.
Stybar led the others into the finishing straight and opened up his sprint almost immediately. Nys tried to come alongside him but a late surge from Pauwels saw him edge past the other two and take the victory by the width of his tyre.
With very little run off area at the end Nys elected to jump off his bike but slipped on the sandy tarmac and came down.
Pauwels’ victory, and some useful bonus points picked up on the end-of-lap sprints during the race, see him close the gap to Nys in the overall GvA Trofee standings to just two points. Stybar can mathematically win the competition at the final race of the series in Oostmalle in two weeks time, but in reality it will come down to a winner take all battle between Nys and Pauwels.
Result men’s Krawatencross
1. Kevin Pauwels (Bel) Telenet-Fidea
2. Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Telenet-Fidea
3. Sven Nys (Bel) Landbouwkrediet
4. Niels Albert (Bel) BKCP-Powerplus
5. Bart Wellens (Bel) Telenet-Fidea
6. Klaas Vantornout (Bel) Sunweb-Revor
7. Tom Meeusen (Bel) Telenet-Fidea
8. Sven Vanthourenhout (Bel) Sunweb-Revor
9. Dieter Vanthourenhout (Bel) BKCP-Powerplus
10. Rob Peeters (Bel) Telenet-Fidea
Gva Trofee standings after 7 rounds
1. Sven Nys (Bel) Landbouwkrediet 150pts
2. Kevin Pauwels (Bel) Telenet-Fidea 148
3. Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Telenet-Fidea 138
4. Niels Albert (Bel) BKCP-Powerplus 116
5. Bart Wellens (Bel) Telenet-Fidea 113