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Win what may be a battle for the ages, Sven Nys was able to gap Wout van Aert coming into the finish to earn his 50th Elite World Cup Win. © A. Reimann / Cyclocross Magazine

File photo: Wout van Aert, shown here battling with Sven Nys at Koksijde, didn’t give Nys a chance at Flandriencross. He opened a gap on the first lap and held it to the finish. © A. Reimann / Cyclocross Magazine

HAMME, BELGIUM—Wout van Aert, learning from his defeat at Koksijde in a battle for the ages with Sven Nys, wasted no time taking to the front of the race at Flandriencross, the third race of the Bpost Bank Trofee series. Van Aert steadily grew his early-race advantage to cruise in with the solo victory, 18 seconds up on Nys.

As the gun went off, Lars van der Haar (Giant-Alpecin) got the jump on the field, taking the holeshot and stringing out the field. An early crash took down Belgian Champion Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Napoleon Games), who would never recover from the misfortune.

Wasting no time, van Aert quickly navigated to van der Haar’s wheel, and the two developed a slight advantage. In his second race back from injury, World Champion Mathieu van der Poel (BKCP-Powerplus) was shuffled back with Nys and was sitting around tenth place.

Sensing the opportunity, van Aert used van der Haar’s aggressiveness as a launching point, and went on the attack early. Van Aert’s pace was too much for van der Haar, and one lap into the race, van Aert was solo.

An excellent runner, along with possessing the necessary power to thrive in the mud at Hamme, van Aert’s gap continued to grow. A chase organized, featuring Nys, van der Haar, van der Poel and Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Napoleon Games), but they were unable to eat into van Aert’s advantage.

With four laps to go, Nys went clear from the chasers, attempting to go on his own to van Aert.

Ultimately Nys’ effort would be in vain, as aside from a bobble with two laps to go into the flyover stairs, van Aert rode a technically-excellent race, keeping the rubber side down on the muddy course.

Van Aert was comfortable enough with his gap to take a clean bike on the last pass by the pits and would finish 18 seconds up on Nys.

In the chase, Pauwels had distanced van der Haar and van der Poel, and rolled across the line in third place, 1:04 down on van Aert.

Stay tuned for full results from Bpost Bank Trofee Flandriencross, and be sure to check out our Elite Women’s race report, where Helen Wyman out-handled Sanne Cant for the win.

2015 Bpost Bank Trofee Series Flandriencross Elite Men's Results

RankNameNat.Age*Result
1Wout VAN AERTBEL2158:26:00
2Sven NYSBEL3958:44:00
3Kevin PAUWELSBEL3159:30:00
4Lars VAN DER HAARNED2459:51:00
5Mathieu VAN DER POELNED201:00:26
6Laurens SWEECKBEL221:00:30
7Julien TARAMARCAZSUI281:00:58
8Tom MEEUSENBEL271:01:01
9Michael VANTHOURENHOUTBEL221:01:07
10Corne VAN KESSELNED241:01:25
11Diether SWEECKBEL221:01:32
12Tim MERLIERBEL231:01:36
13Klaas VANTORNOUTBEL331:01:47
14Gianni VERMEERSCHBEL231:02:01
15Dieter VANTHOURENHOUTBEL301:02:13
16Michael BOROSCZE231:02:19
17Sven VANTHOURENHOUTBEL341:02:28
18Jan DENUWELAEREBEL271:02:36
19Thijs VAN AMERONGENNED291:02:38
20Jim AERNOUTSBEL261:02:58
21Joeri ADAMSBEL261:03:23
22Philipp WALSLEBENGER281:03:47
23Jens VANDEKINDERENBEL221:03:52
24Twan VAN DEN BRANDNED261:03:52
25Rob PEETERSBEL301:03:59
26Radomir SIMUNEKCZE321:05:09
27Patrick VAN LEEUWENNED301:05:13
28Vincent BAESTAENSBEL261:05:56
29Angelo DE CLERCQBEL241:06:21
30Niels WUBBENNED27
31Dave DE CLEYNBEL27
32Garry MILLBURNAUS28
33Niels KOYENBEL24
34Michael VAN DEN HAMCAN23
35Mark MCCONNELLCAN27
36Michael WECHSLERSUI28