"It was immediately clear to me that he was the better one" - Eli Iserbyt takes victory in Kortrijk after teammate Michael Vanthourenhout gets struck by bad luck

The X2O Badkamers Trofee race in Kortrijk was tight and exciting from start to finish. Eli Iserbyt took the victory on the day however Pauwels Sauzen - Bingoal didn't exactly have the best of days.

Iserbyt and Michael Vanthourenhout found themselves on the chase in the first half of the race following an attack from Lars van der Haar. “I saw that Michael was super good. We talked for a while and it was immediately clear to me that he was the better one," Iserbyt said in a post-race interview. "Also on a technical level. In that area we tried to hold off a very strong Lars."

Read also

Eli Iserbyt wins X20 Badkamers Trofeee Kortrijk; Michael Vanthourenhout crashes out whilst leading race in final lap

In the second half it was a tactical affair. The duo attacked in turns and used the technical sections to allow gaps to be created. The tactic seemed to be going to work as Vanthourenhout led the race into it's finale, but then crashed out. "Then I saw Michael lying down. It was swearing and turning the switch to achieve that victory yourself. On that bend there was only one track and the sun was low, so we didn't see much," he explains.

"He must have gone off track. We rode quite quickly, it was diagonally downwards. I hope it doesn't turn out too bad for him, but it didn't look good. I heard he didn't ride any further. That's a shame. Hopefully he can race tomorrow, because we were going to the airport together. I hope for the best.” Vanthourenhout did not finish the race, and it is unlikely that he will make the trip to Ireland taking into consideration that he is also not in contention for the classification.

Read also

"I am pretty sure that Chris Froome and Primoz Roglic would not survive this" - Anton Palzer on his love of SkiMo

Although Iserbyt won the race, Lars van der Haar finished closeby and took several bonus seconds throughout the race. The gap is now of 18 seconds but the Belgian remains hot on the tracks of the classification: “It will be a goal anyway. It's a shame that I'm still losing those bonus seconds, those ten seconds. I think I'm still losing a little time. It is a special classification, but I hope to take back some time in the more difficult races. It's only the second round, so it looks good.”

Read also

"Almost no riders will do the double with us" - Many teams are faced with a tough choice ahead of Dublin World Cup

Mathieu van der Poel thinks about career and taking time off cyclocross in the future: "I don't know how much longer I'll keep racing"