Exhausted Eli Iserbyt defends his World Cup lead despite empty legs: "I was very happy to see the finish line"

Eli Iserbyt suffered a lot from fatigue in the Dublin World Cup, as he acknowledged after his third place. The leader of the rankings won the X2O Trophy in Kortrijk on Saturday and traveled to Ireland in the evening, after which he continued to compete for victory for a long time.

"It was a very difficult race, in which we had to push for a whole hour. There was a lot of deep mud, which was to my disadvantage. But there was still a podium place for me, that was all there was to it," said Iserbyt. "I felt empty in the last lap. My passage in the sandbox did not go well and after that I had to fight for third place. I was very happy that the finish was coming."

In the preliminary final, the leader of Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal had an answer to an acceleration from Pim Ronhaar. "I wanted to stay with him as long as possible afterwards, but after that I was completely empty. Pim was better in the deep mud strips. Then you try to stay with him, but that is not easy. But all in all it was a great race on a very difficult course."

Thanks to his third place, Iserbyt retains the lead in the World Cup. With 147 points he has 19 more than his (quite surprisingly) nearest competitor - Pim Ronhaar.