Lars van der Haar has been very critical of the cyclocross World Cup's schedule, but not only. Despite racing the GP Sven Nys and racing to a strong fourth place, he won only just over a minute to Eli Iserbyt who did not race. This puts into question the timing system the competition uses.
"I am very curious about the plans they are going to present, but I am not worried about it anymore. I've been doing that for so long and in the end they do what is best for themselves, so I don't lose sleep over it anymore. That is for the newer generation," van der Haar told In de Leiderstrui following the race in Baal. Mathieu van der Poel took a dominant victory, with almost two minutes over second place Wout van Aert. Van der Haar finished 3:31 back. However, the X2O's rules state that all riders who do not finish/race the event, and those who finish more than five minutes behind the winner, are given only a five minute loss in the classification.
What happened then was that Van der Haar gained only 1:29 minutes on Eli Iserbyt, who did not race. After a bad day in the Hulst World Cup, the Belgian rider decided to forego Baal and Koksijde (which will take place this week), essentially giving up on the X2O Badkamers Trofee. However, despite not racing he remains only 1:38 minutes behind the Dutchman, still a closeable gap with four races to go. Cameron Mason only won 58 seconds to the Belgian and did not manage to overtake him. This could significantly benefit Iserbyt in the future, and have him reconsider his presence in this week's Koksijde race.
"There are still four races, so everything can still turn around. It looks nice now, but Cameron [Mason] is still in good shape and how about Eli [Iserbyt] losing almost nothing here?" van der Haar questions. "With Mathieu [van der Poel] riding around like that, Eli only loses a minute and a half. On some guys he only loses a few seconds. Eli is still in front of Cameron, can you tell? That's rotten, it's the world upside down."
"I really had good legs, but I was slowly dying from running so much. Take Mathieu out of the equation and it will be a beautiful cross. Then I am within a minute of Wout (and gaining four on Iserbyt, ed.), but now one is outstanding. If Mathieu is two or three minutes ahead again in Koksijde, then Eli will be in great shape and he can easily finish on the podium in the X2O,"
From +0:09 to +1:38 in the X2O Trofee. Pretty good day for 🇧🇪 Eli Iserbyt (without racing).
Still 5 races to go in the X2O Trofee (Baal, Koksijde, Hamme, Lille, Brussels) but it seems like it won't be very exciting this year for the GC. 🇧🇪 Eli Iserbyt skips Baal and Koksijde (= +10 minutes) so only 🇳🇱 Lars van der Haar and 🇬🇧 Cameron Mason remain in the top of the GC.
