"At the right moment I still found some breath" - Laurens Sweeck times his attack to perfection at Superprestige Aardbeiencross Merksplas

After going the entirety of last season without any success, Laurens Sweeck has taken what is already a third victory of the current winter this Saturday afternoon at Superprestige Aardbeiencross Merksplas ahead of Toon Aerts. 

In a tight and tense battle, repeated attacks from the likes of Michael Vanthourenhout, Thibau Nys and the aforementioned Aerts among others failed to the snap the elastic and break free. Throughout all these accelerations though, Sweeck stayed quiet, following the wheels and biding his time. Then, on the final lap, the 30-year-old Belgian timed his move to perfection, accelerating clear and eventually taking the victory.

"I did not have the legs to force my place at the front the entire race," explains the Crelan-Corendon leader in his post-race interview afterwards. "At the right moment I still found some breath to make a move to the front. In the last lap I had to maintain my position to launch another attack. Then I just had to hope that no one else would come over."

Despite his well-known expertise as a sand specialist, Sweeck didn't wait until the pit to make his winning move. "I didn't have the impression that the difference was going to be made there," he explained. "Everyone rode through it quite quickly. I felt that Michael (Vantourenhout, ed.) and Toon (Aerts, ed.) were plateauing a bit, because of their earlier attempts to attack. Then I didn't hesitate to go for it."