Victory of Eli Iserbyt in the Exact Cross Maldegem pro ahead of Michael Vanthourenhout in the first race of the cyclocross calendar after the World Cup won by Mathieu van der Poel.
Eli Iserbyt had a very strong start, who stretched out the group at the start with Laurens Sweeck on his wheel. Felipe Orts, who had lost his uncle a few hours earlier, decided to compete, and did not have a bad start entering the leading group.
After the first pass through the finish line, the Belgian champion and leader of the World Cup lost the first place to the U23 world bronze Emiel Verstrynge. Pim Ronhaar and Michael Vanthourenhout were close behind. Felipe Orts was eighth ahead of Lars Van der Haar and Sweeck.
On the second lap, after a break, Orts took the lead by a few meters, but was quickly relieved by Vanthourenhout. The group of six took a few seconds ahead of the second group led by Sweeck.
Thus, they reached the third lap in the lead Vanthourenhout, Orts, Ronhaar, Iserbyt, Verstrynge and Vandeputte. A few meters away Van der Haar was pulling hard trying to catch up.
On the fourth lap came a brutal attack by Ronhaar who managed to destroy the leading group. Vanthourenhout tried not to lose too much time and behind Iserbyt held as he could. On the fifth lap everything was equal again between the top with Verstrynge losing positions after a fall.
Van der Haar managed to come back and the leading group returned to six men. Ronhaar continued to lead, but without being able to escape. On the seventh lap, just after passing the pits, Vanthourenhout tried to escape, but failed. The leading group went up to 8 units. Nobody managed to escape in the Exact Cross Maldegem.
Everything continued the same in the following laps, with attacks, but no one being able to leave their rivals behind. Everything seemed to be played out on the tenth and last lap of the race.
Ronhaar attacked in the passage of the last lap, but went to the ground and was out of options. This hurt Iserbyt, who had escaped with him. Thus, Iserbyt and Vanthourenhout played for the win with victory for the Belgian champion. Niels Vandeputte closed the podium. Van der Haar finished fourth and Felipe Orts fifth.
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