(Michael Vanthourenhout on his way to winning the EU Cyclo-Cross Championships, November 2022.)
Michael Vanthourenhout soloed to victory Saturday in round #10 of the UCI World Cup Cyclo-Cross at the ski resort of Val di Sole, Italy. On a snow-packed course, Vanthourenhout quickly found the right lines and built up a sizeable lead over his rivals. Finishing 2nd was Niels Vandeputte @39 seconds, while Kevin Kuhn rounded out the podium in 3rd @42 seconds.
Eli Iserbyt was in the top five for most of the race, but crashed hard during lap 5 and had to be taken out on a stretcher. Medical exams showed that nothing was broken, but he will undergo more exams this week.
Mathieu van der Poel was never a threat to the leaders, preferring to hang back and ride a conservative race. He finished 8th @3:14. Reports in Dutch newspapers later revealed that van der Poel was not comfortable on the ice and snow and was directed by his team to take no risks. With big goals in 2023, including the World Cyclo-Cross Championships on February 5, van der Poel’s decision to go easy on the slick course may have been the wisest one.
Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock were not in attendance, opting instead to attend their team training camps.
How It Happened
Lap 1 began with Laurens Sweeck leading, followed by Kevin Kuhn and Niels Vandeputte. Soon after, Kuhn took over the lead followed by Vandeputte and Sweeck. Michael Vanthourenhout then bridged up to the leaders and replaced Sweeck in third position, who dropped back.
Lap 2: Kuhn was leading Vanthourenhout and Vandeputte, followed by Eli Iserbyt and Sweeck. Further behind was Mathieu van der Poel in 8th place @18 seconds. Vanthourenhout took over the lead and his teammate Eli Iserbyt moved up to take second position, followed by Kuhn in third position, and Vandeputte in fourth. Iserbyt struggled on an uphill was passed by Vandeputte who went to the front and took the lead.
Lap 3: Kuhn led, followed by Vanthourenhout and Vandeputte. Iserbyt and Sweeck followed a few seconds behind. Then Vandeputte went to the front with Vanthourenhout and pushed the pace and gapped Kuhn. Behind, Mathieu van der Poel was behind by 28 seconds and appeared to have resigned himself to riding a conservative race.
Lap 4: Vanthourenhout and Vandeputte led the race, followed by the Iserbyt group @17 seconds. Vanthourenhout then pushed the pace and gapped Vandeputte and gained 5 seconds.
Lap 5: Vanthourenhout came across the line in the lead with 12 seconds on Vandeputte and 30 seconds on the group of Kuhn, Iserbyt, Sweeck. Vanthourenhout increased his lead over Vandeputte to 30 seconds, and 38 seconds over Kuhn and Sweeck. Iserbyt had led the chase, but was out of the race, having crashed on a downhill corner.
Lap 6: Vanthourenhout led the race, with Vandeputte behind in 2nd place @39 seconds. Behind, Kuhn and Sweeck followed Vandeputte @7 seconds. Sweeck attempted to push the pace to try and catch Vandeputte, but was unable to put down the kind of power needed to make any gains.
Lap 7: Vanthourenhout continued to lead, followed by Vandeputte in second @45 seconds. Sweeck and Kuhn came through in third and fourth spot @53 seconds. Kuhn dropped Sweeck and made time on 2nd place Vandeputte.
Lap 8: In the final lap, Vanthourenhout had a gap of 44 seconds over Vandeputte. Closely behind, Kuhn made up time on Vandeputte and was only 7 seconds behind. Further back in 4th spot @6 seconds was Sweeck. Over the course of lap 8, Vandeputte, Kuhn, Sweeck, separated by a handful of seconds, fought to maintain their positions. But only Sweeck in 4th spot was any threat, and only to Kuhn. In the end, Sweeck ran out of time and Kuhn was able to maintain his 3rd spot finish.
