Laurens Sweeck sails through sand to seal victory at Duinencross Koksijde
Cyclocross
Laurens Sweeck has once again proven his prowess in the sand and has taken the win at the latest round of the X2O Badkammers Trofee at Duinencross Koksijde this Friday afternoon ahead of Tibor del Grosso.
With no Van der Poel, Van Aert, Van der Haar or Nys among others, a big opportunity presented itself to the rest of the field in Koksijde. Sadly though, for some, any hopes of victory were already quashed in the first corner as most notably Niels Vandeputte hit the deck. At the front meanwhile, Vandeputte's Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Tibor del Grosso was leading the way with Laurens Sweeck, already 20 seconds clear of the chasing pack.
Sweeck, so often one of the most impressive riders in the sand, seemed to have met his match in Del Grosso. Behind though, the chasers were beginning to close with Pim Ronhaar leading the pack and cutting the gap to just 11 seconds.
After a couple more laps of Del Grosso and Sweeck being evenly matched and cancelling each other out at the front, on lap 5, an acceleration from Sweeck began to power the experienced Belgian clear of his younger, Dutch rival. As lap 6 began though, Del Grosso had managed to fight his way right back into contact at the front, just 2 seconds down.
With Toon Aerts now the closest of the challengers at around 45 seconds down heading into the penultimate lap, victory seemed certain to go to either Del Grosso or Sweeck. As Del Grosso started to let a few small errors into his race though, the gap began to grow in favour of Sweeck and as it turned out, that proved the decisive factor in the race as it was Laurens Sweeck who secured the victory ahead of Tibor del Grosso, with Toon Aerts completing the podium in third place.
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- Well not his last year, but my argument is he can't he win the Tour. Remember this thread during the upcoming Tour, btw, I do admire Primoz.awp07-01-2025
- He did a convincing display at Ancares doing peak numbers even without optimal preparation in a team that is weaker in grand tours. Sure he's getting older but the narrative that he's in his last year is ridiculous.alsene07-01-2025
- He is not anti-doping. He is pro-whining. He is more than happy to cheer for the dopers he likes and believe in the miracles he likes.
MarkFour06-01-2025 - Froome has found a genuine way to race slow .. no further gears restrictions needed for him. And speaking about safety - this overnight packfodder to GT winner should start with holding the tt bars while descending with both hands. What a clown!!
UltimateOpportunist06-01-2025 - Nice, yeah, if you’re around a 6-7% gradient when they attack you’re not going to see much, it’s not for nothing the steepest sections are so crowded. If on TV you see an overweight fan running along for more than 30m you know they’re nowhere near that speed there;-)Mistermaumau06-01-2025
- Merry Crossmas to you tooMistermaumau06-01-2025
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- Don’t doubt your cynical side ;-) It’s hardly likely to be true either and he is hardly in a position to judge for others who is best this or that. If he’d just said, he was always good to ME that would have been more truthful and then everyone could draw their own conclusion, now he’s basically shot himself in the foot for nothing (as far as we know).Mistermaumau06-01-2025
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James2631806-01-2025 - Sweep has never accepted the fact that carbo loading now while training and racing isn't a huge benefit to the riders now vs years ago. He always point to doping !frieders306-01-2025