Michael Vanthourenhout takes the European title in Namur

Michael Vanthourenhout has won the European Cyclocross Championship in Namur. This is his third victory of the season.

It was raining at the start, which made the race course more slippery. Eli Iserbyt started the race with a nice lead. Kevin Kuhn soon took the lead from Iserbyt. The rain made it hard to ride without meeting a crash. Lars van der Haar was the first to crash.

Michael Vanthourenhout was leading by the end of the second lap. Van der Haar recovered from the crash and joined Vanthourenhout in the front. Quinten Hermans, Laurens Sweeck, Michael Vanthourenhout and Toon Vandebosch met with a major crash just before the start of the fourth lap.

Iserbyt abandoned the race after just completing four laps. Van der Haar met with another crash in the fifth lap and then again in the seventh lap. Vanthourenhout was leading the race in the final lap, Van der Haar was 41 seconds behind him, and Sweeck was almost 2 minutes behind. Hermans also abandoned the race just before the final lap.

Vanthourenhout was the first to cross the finish line and secured the victory. Despite a series of bad luck, Van der Haar was able to climb up the podium for silver. Sweeck finished third.

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