Without van der Poel and Van Aert, Laurens Sweeck beats Eli Iserbyt in thrilling Parkcross Maldegem
Cyclocross
With Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert ending their seasons, the tight battles for victories have returned. It was very hard earned, but at the Parkcross Maldegem it was Laurens Sweeck who took the victory on a very fast circuit and a thrilling final lap against Eli Iserrbyt.
The very fast race started off very tense. Although the women's race was relatively selective, in the men's field it was not the case, even with the first minutes of racing seeing several falls - affecting, amongst others, Felipe Orts. Kevin Kuhn took control of the race in it's first laps, before Laurens Sweeck attacked on lap 4 of 11.
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But soon after several riders followed, and the very high speeds made it hard for anyone to get a gap over the rest. A small group continued to move very compact into the final laps. Sweeck attacked again towards the finale and although the gaps were small, the incredibly fast run-up to the line made it that any mistake could cost the victory.
But Sweeck held his own despite being at his limit, and took a strong win against a close chasing Iserbyt who threatened him throughout the entire final lap. Shortly behind, Niels Vandeputte finished third. Next weekend there will be two more races in what is a very compact week.
| 01 | Sweeck Laurens | 59:57 |
| 02 | Iserbyt Eli | + 03 |
| 03 | Vandeputte Niels | + 09 |
| 04 | Verstrynge Emiel | + 12 |
| 05 | Aerts Toon | + 13 |
| 06 | Hendrikx Mees | + 14 |
| 07 | Ferdinande Anton | + 15 |
| 08 | Michels Jente | + 22 |
| 09 | Wyseure Joran | + 37 |
| 10 | Adams Jens | + 41 |
| 11 | van den Eijnden Guus | + 52 |
| 12 | Kuhn Kevin | + 01:00 |
| 13 | Kamp Ryan | + 01:21 |
| 14 | Corsus Yordi | + 01:34 |
| 15 | Horny Clément | + 01:45 |
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- Funny that they shorten women’s races but have no qualms about letting U23 do the same distances.Jumpyjohn23-03-2025
- Why is that relevant when discussing speed?Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- But he wasn’t the only one ;-)Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- Obviously the questions are more important to some here than to them or the team so I suggest looking for answers instead of asking questions between ourselves. We’ll probably get them unless someone actually goes to ask the protagonists themselves. Here are some starters : They like riding together; they have their own rivalry that helps bring out the best in both; they might get more points helping each other compared to racing separate races. In any case, unless we hear MJ complaining about it, I don’t think it’s going to change, it’s the Sepp Kuss syndrome all over again, fans lobbying against the will of the rider.Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- Mine goes to MVDP for entertaining us all year round :-) Stellar race, Ganna impressive in his own way as many predicted after some oddly lacklustre times.Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- i remember when not too long ago mathieu was regarded as a real tactical knucklehead. i’m not sure that was ever quite accurate, but it’s certainly the case that over the years he has become a real master tactician. in the biggest races, van der poel rarely makes choices that don’t fully optimize every specific advantage he has.OCexile23-03-2025
- Whatever the result, I believe the strategy by UAE to launch Pogacar was absolutely the right one. Unfortunately, they just were not able to execute it the way they must have planned, being all over the place at the start of the Cipressa.Cooldude23-03-2025
- They are without doubt not just the best two classics riders of this generation, but amongst the best of all time. MvdP is more suited to MSR and PR (which Pog has yet to race), while Pog is now almost untouchable at LBL and Lombardia. RVV is the only one where both basically have an equal chance to win.Cooldude23-03-2025
- bravissima!
maria2024202423-03-2025 - According to Tadej's Strava upload, he went up the Cipressa at an average speed of 37.6kph. Rocket ship! He did the 5.63km verified 'Cipressa' Strava segment in 8:59 minutes, which has a 4.3% average grade and total elevation gain of 229m. Naturally, he got the Strava KOM.Pogboom23-03-2025