Laurens Sweeck takes advantage of absence of Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert to win Superprestige Diegem

In the absence of the two stars of cyclocross Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, it was Laurens Sweeck who came out on top at the final cyclocross race of 2024, the Superprestige Diegem. Sweeck beat Vandeputte into second place, and Thibau Nys came home in third.

It had been over 10 years since a rider other than Van der Poel or Van Aert last won the race, and the winner on that day was Sven Nys. Early on, both Thibau Nys and Lars van der Haar had bad starts, and Nys found himself all the way down in 18th spot. But one man who wasn't struggling was Michael Vanthourenhout, who flew around the opening lap and completed it at an average speed of 29km/h.

At the start of lap 4 Eli Iserbyt suffered a fall, but there was more drama up ahead as despite all his good work at the beginning, Vanthourenhout suffered a problem with his shoe and his lead vanished. And so at the half way stage, it was Niels Vandeputte, Sweeck, Nys and Tibor Del Grosso who led the way.

In the end, it was Sweeck who managed to outsprint Vandeputte and Nys for the victory in what was a thrilling finale.That wraps up the cyclocross action for 2024, but the riders won't have much of a break. They'll be back in action on New Year's Day with the X2O Trofee Baal, continuing the packed cyclocross schedule.