"The most important part of the season is coming now" - Eli Iserbyt building momentum with first victory in a month ahead of World Cup opener
Cyclocross
Iserbyt has ended a barren run, taking his first victory in just short of a month this Saturday afternoon at Urban Cross Kortrijk. As such, the Belgian national champion is heading into the upcoming World Cup opener with momentum firmly on his side.
In a game of cat and mouse between Pauwels Sauzen - Bingoal and Alpecin-Deceuninck, Iserbyt and teammate Michael Vanthourenhout attacked one after the other, with Jente Michels and Niels Vandeputte repeatedly attempted to reel them back in. With three laps to go though, a move from Iserbyt finally snapped the elastic and proved race winning.
“I felt really good during the race,” Iserbyt reflected in his post-race interview. “I made a few attempts, together with Michael. I think we rode perfectly as a team today. I think Michael definitely deserved to be on that podium. In the group I already felt that it was going a bit too slow. It was also difficult to really make a difference with that wind. But once you ride alone, you can really make that difference when they slow down behind you. That was a good tactic today.”
“We said beforehand: we should not maintain that pace, but keep pushing," he continues. "In the past races we just rode at a pace with the rest on our wheel. That was not the right way, I think. Always pushing and seeing if we can do something for each other is perhaps a bit better, now that there are more good riders at the start.”
"This victory feels really good," the Belgian concludes. "The most important part of the season is coming now, with the World Cup, so this is good for the head. Tomorrow (the Antwerp World Cup, ed.) will be a very difficult race. Sandcrosses are difficult for me. But I hope to do well."
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| 01 | Iserbyt Eli | - | 57:44 |
| 02 | Vandeputte Niels | - | + 19 |
| 03 | Vanthourenhout Michael | - | + 19 |
| 04 | Michels Jente | - | + 21 |
| 05 | Kuypers Gerben | - | + 30 |
| 06 | Wyseure Joran | - | + 34 |
| 07 | Ferdinande Anton | - | + 43 |
| 08 | Mason Cameron | - | + 55 |
| 09 | Mein Thomas | - | + 01:01 |
| 10 | Soete Daan | - | + 01:02 |
| 11 | De Bruyckere Kay | - | + 01:12 |
| 12 | Aerts Thijs | - | + 01:27 |
| 13 | van den Eijnden Guus | - | + 01:35 |
| 14 | Vrachten Arne | - | + 01:54 |
| 15 | Janssen Wout | - | + 02:04 |
| 16 | Vandenberghe Viktor | - | + 02:13 |
| 17 | Vandebosch Toon | - | + 02:41 |
| 18 | De Brauwere Sil | - | + 02:45 |
| 19 | Dockx Aaron | - | + 02:51 |
| 20 | Alderweireld Robin | - | + 03:12 |
🇧🇪 Eli Iserbyt a dominé #ExactCross Kortrijk devant 🇧🇪 Niels Vandeputte et 🇧🇪 Michael Vanthourenhout#cx #veldrijden #cyclocross pic.twitter.com/qZJ9GWJzD6
— 🚴 Les Rois du Peloton 🚲 (@LRoisDuPeloton) November 23, 2024
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024