• 1. Zdenek Stybar (Cze), 1:04:20
• 2. Kevin Pauwels (Bel), 1:04:29
• 3. Sven Nys (Bel), 1:04:29
• 4. Niels Albert (Bel), 1:04:51
• 5. Radomir Simunek (Cze), 1:04:53
• 6. Bart Aernouts (Bel), 1:04:53
• 7. Bart Wellens (Bel), 1:05:01
• 8. Mariusz Gil (Pol), 1:05:01
• 9. Tom Meeusen (Bel), 1:05:01
• 10. Dieter Vanthourenhout (Bel), 1:05:09
• 11. Vincent Baestaens (Bel), 1:05:09
• 12. Sven Vanthourenhout (Bel), 1:05:11
• 13. Thijs Van Amerongen (Ned), 1:05:11
• 14. Niels Wubben (Ned), 1:05:19
• 15. Mitchell Huenders (Ned), 1:05:19
• 16. Klaas Vantornout (Bel), 1:05:25
• 17. Thijs Al (Ned), 1:05:25
• 18. Aurelien Duval (Fra), 1:05:25
• 19. Twan Van Den Brand (Ned), 1:05:25
• 20. Kenneth Van Compernolle (Bel), 1:05:25
• 21. Jan Denuwelaere (Bel), 1:05:57
• 22. Ian Field (Gbr), 1:05:57
• 23. Eddy Van Ijzendoorn (Ned), 1:06:05
• 24. Jim Aernouts (Bel), 1:06:05
• 25. Jiri Polnicky (Cze), 1:06:05
• 26. Tom Van Den Bosch (Bel), 1:06:13
• 27. Martin Zlamalik (Cze), 1:06:30
• 28. Romain Lejeune (Fra), 1:06:35
• 29. Matthieu Boulo (Fra), 1:06:45
• 30. Stijn Huys (Bel), 1:06:45
• 31. Toon Devenyns (Bel), 1:06:45
• 32. Bart Hofman (Bel), 1:06:45
• 33. Thomas Vernaeckt (Bel), 1:06:57
• 34. Kevin Cant (Bel), 1:07:04
• 35. Geert Wellens (Bel), 1:07:16
• 36. Florian Le Corre (Fra), 1:08:15
• 37. Kobus Hereijgers (Ned), 1:08:15
• 38. Patrick Bassez (Bel),

World champion Zdenek Stybar (Quick Step) celebrates as he wins the Hamme-Zogge leg of the Superprestige series. Photo: Peter Deconinck | AFP

World champion Zdenek Stybar (Quick Step) rode a huge group of favorites off his wheel and soloed to victory in the Superprestige Hamme-Zogge on Sunday.

The redesigned course was dry and fast, with short, rideable climbs, two staircase runs and two flyovers, one a real monster that started with a rideable ramp and segued into a staircase run.

A group of 12 had formed up with seven laps to go containing all the usual suspects: Stybar, Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet), Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Revor), Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus), Bart Wellens (Telenet-Fidea), Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Revor), Dieter Vanthourenhout (BKCP-Powerplus) and Bart Aernouts (Rabobank-Giant), among others..

Nys and Pauwels tried to whittle the group down without success, and with six laps remaining it looked like anyone’s race.

Then Stybar exploded out of the group, opening up a huge gap, perhaps six seconds. After a moment’s hesitation Albert came forward to lead the chase with Nys on his wheel. But by the giant flyover the world champ had extended his lead to nine seconds.

Next time through the start-finish, 35 minutes into the race, Stybar was out of sight, his lead up to 20 seconds, as Vanthourenhout led the chase across the line.

With four laps remaining the chase was losing ground, nearly a half-minute down. Nys accelerated, taking Albert with him, and the two left the others in their dust.

Forty-seven minutes into the race Nys and Albert still trailed Stybar by two dozen seconds with three laps to go. Vantornout led the others 10 seconds further in arrears.

Pauwels and Aernouts were closing on the two chasers but no one was threatening Stybar, who held firmly to an advantage of 25 seconds with two laps remaining and showed no signs of slowing down. Pauwels fought his way up to Nys and Albert, but Aernouts couldn’t make the bridge and remained a few seconds behind with a second chase group.

Nys punched it, trying to rid himself of Albert and Pauwels, and the Belgian champ seemed to struggle slightly, slipping behind Pauwels at the monster flyover. Nys accelerated again, but Albert hung on, and Nys gestured angrily at Pauwels, who having just bridged up was not eager to share the work.

Eventually Pauwels did take the front, but Stybar was taking the bell lap, 27 seconds ahead, and the chasing threesome began thinking about the arrangement of the remaining places on the podium as they crossed the line.

Nys retook the lead, with Pauwels and Albert following, the Belgian champ always dangling slightly off the back.

And then he was off the back for real as Nys gave it the gas, taking Pauwels along with him going into the monster flyover. Pauwels led Nys past the pits and then laid down a few accelerations of his own on an undulating section, taking a slight lead as the two approached the paved finish.

Stybar took the win, punching the air, and Pauwels led out the sprint for second, pipping a tiring Nys. Albert finished fourth with Radomir Simunek fifth.

In women’s racing, meanwhile, Daphny Van Den Brand (AA Drink-Leontien.nl) took the victory by 18 seconds over runner-up Pauline Ferrand Prevot (AC Bazancourt) and third-placed Sanne Cant (BKCP-Powerplus).

Americans Amy Dombroski (Crank Brothers) and Christine Vardaros (Baboco-Revor) both finished in the top 20, with Dombroski ninth at 1:20 and Vardaros 15th at 3:04.

Men

• 1. Zdenek Stybar (Cze), 1:04:20
• 2. Kevin Pauwels (Bel), 1:04:29
• 3. Sven Nys (Bel), 1:04:29
• 4. Niels Albert (Bel), 1:04:51
• 5. Radomir Simunek (Cze), 1:04:53

Women

• 1. Daphny Van Den Brand (Ned), 40:35
• 2. Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Fra), 40:53
• 3. Sanne Cant (Bel), 40:53
• 4. Sabrina Stultiens (Ned), 40:53
• 5. Sophie De Boer (Ned), 40:53

Complete results

• 1. Sven Nys, 59:58
• 2. Klaas Vantornout, 0:04
• 3. Niels Albert, 0:40
• 4. Bart Wellens, 1:10
• 5. Rob Peeters, 1:26
• 6. Zdenek Stybar, (Cze) 1:37
• 7. Kevin Pauwels, 1:48
• 8. Gerben de Knegt (Ned), 1:57
• 9. Jan Denuwelaere, 2:03
• 10. Bart Aernouts, 2:07
• 11. Sven Vanthourenhout, 2:48
• 12. Kenneth Van Compernolle, 3:29
• 13. Petr Dlask (Cze), 3:36
• 14. Thijs van Amerongen (Ned), 3:39
• 15. Thijs Al (Ned), 3:50
• 16. Tom Meeusen, 4:11
• 17. Tom Van den Bosch, 4:40
• 18. Philipp Walsleben (Swi), 5:15
• 19. Jonathan Page (USA), 5:24
• 20. Martin Zlamalik (Cze), 6:22
• 21. Radomir Simunek (Cze), 6:45
• 22. Jan Verstraeten, 6:51
• 23. Ben Berden, 7:55
• 24. Eddy van IJzendoorn (Ned), 8:16
• 25. Robert Gavenda (Svk), -1 lap
• 26. Mitchell Huenders (Ned), -1 lap
• 27. Bart Hofman, -2 laps
• 28. Craig Richey (Can), -3 laps
• 29. Carlos Hernandez (Spa), -3 laps
• 30. Jorge Cantalicio (Spa), -3 laps
• 31. Bart Verschueren, -3 laps
• 32. Roger Rodriguez (Spa), -4 laps
• 33. Manuel Martin (Spa), -5 laps

Overall standings

• 1. Sven Nys, 41 points
• 2. Zdenek Stybar (Tsj), 40
• 3. Bart Wellens and Niels Albert, 33
• 5. Bart Aernouts, 32
• 6. Kevin Pauwels, 31
• 7. Klaas Vantornout, 21
• 8. Rob Peeters, 20
• 9. Tom Meeusen and Sven Vanthourenhout, 15
• 11. Gerben de Knegt (Ned), 13
• 12. Steve Chainel (Fra) and Philipp Walsleben (Sui), 12
• 14. Enrico Franzoi (Ita), 11
• 15. Jan Denuwelaere, 7
• 16. Thijs van Amerongen (Ned), 6
• 17. Dieter Vanthourenhout, 5
• 18. Kenneth Van Compernolle, 4
• 19. Jan Verstraeten and Petr Dlask (Cze), 3
• 21. Jonathan Page (USA), Eddy van IJzendoorn (Ned) and Thijs Al (Ned), 1

Nobody in the world is better than Sven Nys in the mud right now

If there’s an emerging theme in European cyclocross ─ at least for the month of November ─ you can express it in a single word: mud. Before today, Belgian Champion Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet) had slipped and slid his way to three straight victories. Boosted by his superior technique in bad conditions, Nys had already brought home wins on the cobbled Koppenberg, in a hailstorm in Ronse, and on a saturated track in Thursday’s Armistice Day race in Niel.

And, as the rains that started weeks ago continued to fall across Belgium, flooding streets and driving rivers over their banks in places, Sunday’s third round of the Nissan Superprestige series in Hamme-Zogge certainly seemed to favor Nys to extend his win streak to four. But the rain tapered off just in time for today’s start, leaving racers with a course thick with a soupy mud that looked likely to feature as much running as pedaling, conditions under which Nys’ technical gifts have not always been sufficient boost him over some of the peloton’s more talented runners.

But if Nys struggled today it didn’t show, and the Belgian Champion thrilled the huge crowds that packed the fields here in Hamme-Zogge with a dramatic come from behind victory over Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Revor) and Niels Albert (BKCP-PowerPlus).

American Jonathan Page (Planet Bike), coming off yesterday’s fourth place finish in Dottingnies, in Belgium’s Walloon region, was the first out of the gate, charging into the knee-deep mud and water just beyond the pavement. But midway through the first lap Page was overtaken by Vantornout, who used his long stride and speed off the bike to quickly gain an advantage of some 10 seconds over the field. Behind him, teammate Sven Vanthourenhout (Sunweb-Revor) and Bart Aernouts (Rabobank) led a huge chase group that included World Champion Zdenek Stybar (Telenet-Fidea), making his return to ‘cross after being sidelined for Thursday’s race in Niel by a training injury, Albert, and a host of other contenders.

Nys, meanwhile, trailed the main chase for much of the first lap, but told Velonews afterwards that his slow start was a strategic decision. “I just wanted to have good speed, but not go over the limit,” he said. “I didn’t want to get nervous and try to go immediately to the front, but relax, stay cool, and try to focus on my own heartbeat.”

The strategy apparently worked and, by the end of the race’s second lap, Nys had reached the front, sitting relaxed in third place while Vantornout continued to drive the pace up front. By the end of the next lap the mud began to take its toll, and the lead group fractured, setting up a three-man race between Nys, Vantornout, and Albert.

While the three leaders traded attacks and worked to stretch their lead over the rest of the field, Stybar came to the front of the chase, leading a group that featured three of his Telenet-Fidea teammates, Bart Wellens, Rob Peeters, and Kevin Pauwels, as well as several others. But Stybar’s efforts proved to be simultaneously too much and not enough: too much for the Czech to sustain, but not enough to reduce the growing gap to the leaders. When Stybar faltered, Wellens took up the charge, pulling away from the rest of the chase group, but gaining no time on the three leaders. The two-time World Champion would go on to finish fourth, while Stybar would fade to sixth behind teammate Peeters, a disappointing result that dropped him from first to second in the overall series classification.

By the time the leaders got the bell it was clear that the winner would emerge from that group, and Nys fired the first shot, attacking as soon as the leaders plunged into the mud again. Albert and Vantornout quickly closed the gap, and Vantornout briefly was able to pull away on one of the course’s several long stretches of running, but the three came back together and Nys again went clear when he bypassed pits while the other two switched bikes. The chasers closed the gap, but the effort was costly, and Albert fell off the pace with half a lap to go.

In the end, Nys managed to power away from Vantornout, who said that he simply lacked the power to match Nys on the final stretch of pavement.

“It was hard today,” the lanky 2010 World Championships runner-up told VeloNews later. “It was very heavy, very muddy, and your own tempo was very important. And that was good for me. I’m a good runner. This is cyclocross, I love it, all the mud.

2010 Superprestige Hamme-Zogge: A muddy Zdenek Stybar tries to battle his way back into the race

Vantornout added that, despite the falling short in the race’s final moments, he was very happy to be back on form after a series of difficult weeks. “Today is a very important race for my team,” he said. “The weeks before I was a little bit ill, and my results were not so good, but I was really working hard for (this race), and here I am.”

Albert, who would cross the line some 40 seconds behind the two leaders, said that he was happy to find himself on the podium yet again, albeit off the top step. “It was a really tough day,” he said. “We had lots of rain the (past few days). The field was like a big swimming pool. You can train for running, but after I had my knee problems (earlier in the season) I couldn’t run, so I was happy with the third place. At this top level, it’s not so easy to close the gap on Sven or Stybar. Today the gap was a little bit smaller than the last two weeks. Every week it’s a little smaller, so hopefully in a few weeks I am in the front.”

Nys, for his part, said he was gratified to win a race that did not completely suit his strengths. “Today it was closer (than the last few races), but it was a race that’s not so good for me. It’s too much running, I think. This running is not what I’m used to doing, and I’m not the best runner of the whole peloton. But my shape is really good and so I can do everything. For this race, mentally you must be really strong, and try to motivate yourself and stay really focused. I put everything into the last lap.”

Jonathan Page, for his part, couldn’t sustain his strong start and faded to 19th place by the end of the race. “I was tired from yesterday,” he said, “and I’m still not in great shape yet.” Page, who has struggled to regain his form since a back injury in the Plzen World Cup last month, said he was nonetheless optimistic about his prospects for the second half of the season.

Canadian Craig Richey (CyclocrossRacing.com), in his first career start in Belgium, finished 28th.

Complete results

Quick results

• 1. Sven Nys
• 2. Klaas Vantornout
• 3. Niels Albert
• 4. Bart Wellens
• 5. Rob Peeters

Superprestige No. 4, Hamme-Zogge, Belgium

• 1. Zdenek Stybar (Cze), in 1:03:05
• 2. Sven Nys (Bel)
• 3. Klaas Vantornout (Bel), in 1:03:08
• 4. Niels Albert (Bel), in 1:03:45
• 5. Sven Vanthourenhout (Bel), in 1:03:48
• 6. Erwin Vervecken (Bel), in 1:03:48
• 7. Radomir Simunek (Cze), in 1:03:48
• 8. Bart Aernouts (Bel), in 1:03:48
• 9. Kevin Pauwels (Bel), in 1:03:48
• 10. Jan Verstraeten (Bel), in 1:03:48
• 11. Enrico Franzoi (Ita), in 1:03:48
• 12. Gerben De Knegt (Ned), in 1:03:48
• 13. Rob Peeters (Bel), in 1:04:00
• 14. Dieter Vanthourenhout (Bel), in 1:04:24
• 15. Thijs Van Amerongen (Ned), in 1:04:59
• 16. Petr Dlask (Cze), in 1:04:59
• 17. Tom Van Den Bosch (Bel), in 1:04:59
• 18. Eddy Van Ijzendoorn (Ned), in 1:04:59
• 19. Jonathan Page (Usa), in 1:04:59
• 20. Thijs Al (Ned), in 1:04:59
• 21. Wim Leemans (Bel), in 1:04:59
• 22. Wilant Van Gils (Ned), in 1:04:59
• 23. Mariusz Gil (Pol), in 1:05:31
• 24. Bart Verschueren (Bel), in 1:05:31
• 25. Jan Soetens (Bel), in 1:06:20
• 26. Martin Zlamalik (Cze), in 1:06:28
• 27. Tim Van Nuffel (Bel), in 1:06:56
• 28. Gianni Denolf (Bel), in 1:07:16
• 29. Marco Bianco (Ita), in 1:07:16
• 30. Frantisek Kloucek (Cze), in 1:07:16
• 31. Jan Van Dael (Bel), in 1:07:16
• 32. Tom De Kort (Bel), in 1:07:36
• 33. Ivar Hartogs (Ned), in 1:07:59
• 34. Philipp Walsleben (Ger), in 1:08:30
• 35. Stijn Huys (Bel), in 1:09:24
• 36. Boldbaatar Bold-Erdene (Mgl)
• 37. Ariunbold Naranbat (Mgl)

Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) took second with Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Projob) third. Series leader and world champion Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) ran out of gas late in the race and had to settle for fourth on the day.

With two laps to go the race had boiled down to this foursome leading an eight-man chase group by some 20 seconds on the serpentine circuit. Stybar was bringing up the rear as Albert, Nys and Vantornout took turns attacking the group.

Despite all the aggression, going into the bell lap the foursome was still together. Stybar finally came to the front on the pavement and attacked going into the dirt, chased by Nys and Vantornout with Albert gapped.

As Albert dangled off the back, Nys punched it. Vantornout was briefly caught out, but Stybar quickly latched on. Then Vantornout found some reserves and launched a last-ditch attack.

But as the lead trio hit the finishing stretch, it was Stybar taking the victory ahead of Nys, with Vantornout banging his bars in frustration.

American Jonathan Page (Planet Bike) finished 19th.

Results