🏆 X2O Trofee Kortrijk (C2) 🇧🇪 1 🇧🇪 Eli Iserbyt 2 🇳🇱 Lars van der Haar 3 🇬🇧 Cameron Mason 4 🇳🇱 Van Kessel 5 🇧🇪 Adams 6 🇧🇪 Vandeputte 7 🇧🇪 Ferdinande 8 🇧🇪 Vandebosch 9 🇧🇪 Baestaens 10 🇳🇱 Hendrikx ➡️ Results: bit.ly/3GgD8H2
"We're not going to make a fuss about that" - Pauwels Sauzen's team tactics derail Lars van der Haar's plans for victory in Kortrijk
CyclocrossSaturday, 25 November 2023 at 17:30
Two second places in the X2O Badkamers Trofee and several bonus seconds today in Kortrijk earned Lars van der Haar the cup lead by 18 seconds over Eli Iserbyt. However, the Dutch champion wasn't happy after missing out on a victory the way in the way he did.
“I saw an opportunity to grab the first fifteen bonus seconds and immediately had a gap. Then you have to keep riding. In retrospect it might not have been the best thing," van der Haar said in a post-race interview. He attacked in the first lap of the race together with Corné van Kessel and immediatelly put the competition under pressure. However, a few riders matched him today. Eventually Michael [Vanthourenhout] came along. I knew that they were going to play the annoying game for me, but I had to play along and suffer it.”
Van der Haar had led the race for it's first half but that changed on lap 4. From then onwards he was racing against the two Pauwels Sauzen - Bingoal riders on a track where tactics were possible amongst teammates. “I was lucky that Cameron kept the pace up. It was a shame that it fell, because that was perfect for me. Then Michael and Eli got the chance to play again and again." That happened then, with several strategic slow downs and attacks allowing Vanthourenhout to get a gap into the final lap which looked decisive. But that then changed again in the finale of the race.
"You just couldn't overtake because it was very slippery. There wasn't much going on, because I mainly focused on Eli. But then Michael fell. I think I was the biggest victim of that, because I had to get off the bike completely," van der Haar explains, having lost his position to Cameron Mason. "It gave Eli the chance to get back to the front. I had to pedal behind it to get back to it.” Van der Haar still managed to sprint to second place but couldn't match the Belgian for the second race in a row.
“It has already happened to us. We're not going to make a fuss about that. Of course I like to see it differently for myself because I like to win here. But yes, it is a bit part of it. Maybe I'm the fastest on the line, but you also have to get into the right position. That did not work," he continues.
He was rewarded to a trip on the podium in the top step as he now leads the ranks. He won't be racing tomorrow in Dublin and will then be able to recover from the hard race. “That's why I took a risk at the beginning of the race to grab those seconds. At the finish I lose one more and win. That's still very sad, but I get nine seconds. That's nice again.”
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