Eli Iserbyt has been showing great form throughout the Christmas block, but 'hit the wall' during the Hulst World Cup. Fearing possible fatigue or injury, Pauwels Sauzen - Bingoal and the Belgian decided to change his schedule so as to be able to focus on his main goals.
In Hulst he looked good during the first few minutes of the race, but subsequently cracked. The World Cup leader fell out of the Top20 and then abandoned the race - not the best signs. Whilst until yesterday he had a relatively comfortable lead of the classification, but Baloise - Trek Lions trio of Joris Nieuwenhuis, Pim Ronhaar and Lars van der Haar finished second, third and fourth.
Hence, they remain in the same positions in the World Cup. With a lead of only 35 points over Nieuwenhuis now - and just a little more over the other two - Iserbyt's victory is all but assured with three World Cups still remaining. Zonhoven comes next week, and he will look to recover until then, to perform and try to take the win in what is now his main goal.
Through consistency and quality, Iserbyt has already conquered the Superprestige. However, he will abandon ambitions of winning the X2O Trofee Badkamers, in which he currently places second to Lars van der Haar. He has changed schedule and will now not race in neither Baal or Koksijde, two very prestigious tracks where great spectacle is expected.