World Champ Lars Boom and Sven Nys battled til the end in Nommay and settled the hour-long fight with a two-man sprint with Boom taking the win. Bart Wellens came in third, 22 seconds back. Three Americans (Ryan Trebon, Jamey Driscoll, and Molly Cameron) and three Canadians (St John, Schooler, Sutton) made the start, with Trebon (Kona) being the top finisher in 33rd. American Jonathan Page remained in the states after the national championships.
World Cup Cyclocross #6 – Nommay
by Bart Hazen of The Daily Peloton
The sixth round of the World Cup took place in Nommay, France on Sunday December 21. After an exciting race it was World Champion Lars Boom who nips Nys in the sprint. Bart Wellens finished third. With his second place Nys increases his lead in the World Cup ranking on his closest competitors Wellens and Pauwels.
The course was very tough due to the overnight rain and some major climbs. In contrast with other races, Bart Wellens had a very good start and sat in second just behind the best starter of all, Lars Boom.
In the beginning of the race Sunweb-Projob rider Sven Vanthourenhout rode strongly and remained in the lead for much of the early laps. After three laps of nine. seven riders were in front with Sven Vanthourenhout (Sunweb), Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet), Lars Boom (Rabobank), Erwin Vervecken (Fidea), Gerben de Knegt (Rabobank), Kevin Pauwels (Fidea) and Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb).
Bart Wellens, who had a good start, was originally not part of this break but one lap later, he bridged across to the break, bringing French champion Francis Mourey and a resurgent Richard Groenendaal along for a ride. The 37-year-old Dutch rider will end his career at the end of the season and has his own farewell race in his town St. Michielsgestel on January 4, 2009.
Halfway through the Francis Mourey attacked the break and was followed by Lars Boom but they couldn’t get away. At the end of the lap the World Champion once again attacked and now Bart Wellens joined the Dutch all-rounder.
With three laps to go Boom and Wellens were joined by Mourey and the three had a lead of 7 seconds on a chasing group led by Nys. With a strong sprint Nys bridged up to the break and almost immediately attacked. The only one able to follow the Belgian Champion and leader of all the Regularity classifications was of course World Champion Lars Boom.
The two worked well together and with two laps to go they had already ten seconds on six chasers Groenendaal, Vanthourenhout, Pauwels, Vervecken, Mourey and Wellens. In the same lap the gap was almost halved due to a strong effort of Wellens. Wellens went on, got rid of the others, and turning into the final lap the Belgian was six seconds behind on Boom and Nys.
In the final lap Wellens almost bridged up to the two in front but the two champions in front didn’t allow him to connect. In the sprint Lars Boom was the strongest and the Dutchman took his second World Cup win of the season after his win in Pijnacker in early November.
The next World Cup race will take place in Zolder (Belgium) on Friday December 26.
Last lap highlights on our video site.
Full Results:
| Place | Rider | Country | Time | Pts |
| 1 | BOOM Lars | NED | 1:03:30 | 80 |
| 2 | NYS Sven | BEL | +00:00 | 70 |
| 3 | WELLENS Bart | BEL | +00:22 | 65 |
| 4 | GROENENDAAL Richard | NED | +00:26 | 60 |
| 5 | VANTHOURENHOUT Sven | BEL | +00:31 | 55 |
| 6 | PAUWELS Kevin | BEL | +00:33 | 50 |
| 7 | VERVECKEN Erwin | BEL | +00:36 | 48 |
| 8 | MOUREY Francis | FRA | +00:53 | 46 |
| 9 | DE KNEGT Gerben | NED | +01:10 | 44 |
| 10 | VANTORNOUT Klaas | BEL | +01:25 | 42 |
| 11 | SIMUNEK Radomir | CZE | +01:29 | 40 |
| 12 | AERNOUTS Bart | BEL | +01:31 | 39 |
| 13 | FONTANA Marco Aurelio | ITA | +01:49 | 38 |
| 14 | FRANZOI Enrico | ITA | +01:49 | 37 |
| 15 | AL Thijs | NED | +02:22 | 36 |
| 16 | VANTHOURENHOUT Dieter | BEL | +02:27 | 35 |
| 17 | STYBAR Zdenek | CZE | +02:32 | 34 |
| 18 | HEULE Christian | SUI | +02:43 | 33 |
| 19 | DLASK Petr | CZE | +02:54 | 32 |
| 20 | DUVAL Aurelien | FRA | +02:58 | 31 |
| 21 | BAZIN Nicolas | FRA | +03:23 | 30 |
| 22 | VAN GILS Wilant | NED | +03:30 | 29 |
| 23 | CHAINEL Steve | FRA | +03:45 | 28 |
| 24 | PEETERS Rob | BEL | +04:05 | 27 |
| 25 | AUSBUHER Kamil | CZE | +04:06 | 26 |
| 26 | BIANCO Marco | ITA | +04:08 | 25 |
| 27 | BELGY Julien | FRA | +04:32 | 24 |
| 28 | ZAHNER Simon | SUI | +04:42 | 23 |
| 29 | MURGOITIO REKALDE Egoitz | ESP | +04:43 | 22 |
| 30 | COLOMBATTO Laurent | FRA | +04:48 | 21 |
| 31 | VISINELLI Rafael | ITA | +05:18 | 20 |
| 32 | LOPEZ Jonathan | FRA | +05:20 | 19 |
| 33 | TREBON Ryan | USA | +05:52 | 18 |
| 34 | BINA Martin | CZE | +05:57 | 17 |
| 35 | VAN IJZENDOORN Eddy | NED | +06:11 | 16 |
| 36 | VAN LEEUWEN Patrick | NED | +06:26 | 15 |
| 37 | BIRKENFELD René | GER | +06:37 | 14 |
| 38 | LANG Pirmin | SUI | +06:43 | 13 |
| 39 | GUJAN Martin | SUI | +06:59 | 12 |
| 40 | VAN AMERONGEN Thijs | NED | +07:19 | 11 |
| 41 | URSI Fabio | ITA | +07:25 | 10 |
| 42 | KASEK David | CZE | +07:46 | 9 |
| 43 | PARBO Joachim | DEN | +08:15 | 8 |
| 44 | DAMIANI Luca | ITA | +08:28 | 7 |
| 45 | BAUSCH Gusty | LUX | -1LAP | 6 |
| 46 | WILDHABER Marcel | SUI | -1LAP | 5 |
| 47 | PION Julien | FRA | -1LAP | 4 |
| 48 | MOSER Andreas | SUI | -1LAP | 3 |
| 49 | DRISCOLL James | USA | -1LAP | 2 |
| 50 | ST JOHN Derrick | CAN | -2LAP | 1 |
| 51 | METLICKA Vaclav | SVK | -2LAP | 0 |
| 52 | SCHOOLER Aaron | CAN | -2LAP | 0 |
| 53 | JUAREZ ALDAY David | ESP | -2LAP | 0 |
| 54 | LOZANO RIBA David | ESP | -3LAP | 0 |
| 55 | CAMERON Molly | USA | -3LAP | 0 |
| 56 | GONZALEZ FONTAN Mauro | ESP | -3LAP | 0 |
| 57 | URIARTE OKAMIKA Erlantz | ESP | -3LAP | 0 |
| 58 | SUTTON Andre | CAN | -5LAP | 0 |
| WAGNER Sascha | GER | DNF | 0 | |
| ZLAMALIK Martin | CZE | DNF | 0 | |
| GAMBINO Alessandro | ITA | DNF | 0 | |
| BOGGIA Stefano | ITA | DNF | 0 | |
| SICKMUELLER Johannes | GER | DNF | 0 | |
| GIL Mariusz | POL | DNF | 0 | |
| PRESSLAUER Peter | AUT | DNF | 0 |
