Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels-Sauzen-Bingoal) emerged victorious from a chaotic final lap to take a dramatic victory at the second round of the X2O Trofee cyclocross series in Kortrijk ahead of Lars van der Haar (Baloise Trek Lions) and Cameron Mason (Cyclocross Reds) after teammate Michael Vanthourenhout crashed from a leading position on the final lap.
Vanthourenhout and Iserbyt played perfect team tactics to gap Van der Haar with less than a lap left to race, allowing the European Champion to pull away, but as he came down and was left clearly injured, Iserbyt came to the front to pick up the pieces.
Mason and Van der Haar tried to retake the lead amid the chaos, but the Belgian stayed tidy through the technical sections and maintained his lead all the way to the line to take his fifth victory of the season.
Despite finishing second, Van der Haar moved into the lead of the X2O Trofee series (which is measured on aggregate time) with teammate Thibau Nys opting to ride tomorrow’s World Cup round in Dublin instead which loses him five minutes in the overall standings.
Iserbyt revealed in his post-race interview that his mechanic changed his tyres back from the Grifo to Rhino tyre tread which aided him in the final few laps when the rain started to fall and muddy conditions worsened.
“I had a little slip on the off-camber, but I had some juice in the legs as well for the end of the lap,” said Iserbyt. “I’m really really happy to take the victory in kind of my home race.”
Iserbyt hoped for good news on his teammate's condition after crashing but was unaware of how he was during his flash interview.
“On that bend, there was only one track and the sun was low, so we didn't see much," said Iserbyt. "He must have gone off track. We rode quite quickly, it was diagonally downwards. I hope it doesn't turn out too bad for him, but it didn't look good.
"I heard he didn't ride any further, that's a shame. Hopefully, he can race tomorrow [in Dublin] because we were going to the airport together. I hope for the best.”
Van der Haar kicked off the day’s action from the start line, exploding into an early move with only Corné van Kessel (Deschacht-Hens-Maes) able to stay with his ferocious pace until he was also distanced on lap 3.
Behind, Vanthourenhout had started to slowly chip away at the Dutch Champion’s lead, eventually making the catch around the halfway mark, but neither was happy to push the pace as they hit the headwind by the start/finish line.
This allowed Iserbyt and Mason to form a group of four at the front, with British Champion Mason making an opportunistic move to the front of the race. Mason has been raising his game week-on-week this season after moving to the Cyclocross Reds team, but his time at the front was short-lived as he slipped out on the off-camber section and fell to fourth in the group.
With Mason dropped, Pauwels-Sauzen-Bingoal played the numbers game on Van der Haar brilliantly until Vanthourenhout found separation on the final lap with Van der Haar running out of steam from his earlier efforts.
Vanthourenhout looked set to take victory, his first since reclaiming his European title until he approached a right-hand corner and slipped out with the rain now falling. He stuck his arm out to try and lessen the impact, but it appeared to get caught in the ground and he slammed his right shoulder into the mud.
Vanthourenhout rolled off the course clutching his shoulder in clear pain as Iserbyt and Van der Haar narrowly avoided crashing over his bike, but the Belgian was clearly the strongest and held off the charge behind from Mason also.
Mason, Iserbyt and Vanthourenhout are all on the start line for tomorrow’s World Cup in Dublin, but the latter’s involvement looks less likely after his heavy crash. They’ll be joined by Baloise Trek Lions duo Pim Ronhaar and Thibau Nys as favourites in Ireland.
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