Netting his 14th win of the year, and increasing his 2015 BPost Bank Trofee series record to five-out-of-five, Wout van Aert (Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace) rode to a solo victory at Scheldecross in Antwerp, Belgium.
The first half of the race at Scheldecross was a tactical affair. Van Aert’s teammate Tim Merlier (Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace) took the holeshot and was able to string the race out for the first two laps.
With a lead group that included all of the ‘cross heads-of-state—Sven Nys (Crelan-AA Drink), Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb Napoleon Games), Mathieu van der Poel (BKCP-Powerplus), Lars van der Haar (Giant-Alpecin), among others— David van der Poel (BKCP-Powerplus) launched an attack in service of his brother Mathieu.
David van der Poel’s effort was short lived, after two laps off the front, he was absorbed by a chase group being driven by van der Haar through the start finish. With five laps to go, the race was back together at the front.
Biding their time perfectly, a mistake by van der Haar on a sandy uphill served as the launching point for van Aert and van der Poel. In the blink of an eye the duo had a gap, and were quickly building on it.
With the duo of van Aert and van der Poel established, a chase quickly formed behind with Nys, Pauwels and van der Haar trying to reel the lead duo in, and keep the time gaps close, as the BPost Bank Trofee series overall is time-based.
Chase as they might, the the second group did not make inroads to the leaders, and the race would be won from the leading duo.
Van der Poel was the first to attack our of the lead duo, trying to distance van Aert on an uphill kick, but his effort proved unsuccessful. Van Aert overtook van der Poel, and his relentless pace forced an error on a sand turn, with van der Poel having to put a foot down.
This brief mistake was all van Aert needed to launch his effort, and he opened an insurmountable gap, and continued to open it up until the finish, where he rolled across the line, arms raised, solo for the win.
Van der Poel finished 23 seconds down on van Aert. Making up from his decisive mistake, van der Haar recovered nicely, finishing in third, 31 seconds down on van Aert.
Be sure to check out our Scheldecross Elite Women’s race report to read how Sanne Cant got her 10th win of the year.
BPost Bank Trofee Scheldecross Elite Men's Results
| Place | Name | Country | Age | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VAN AERT Wout | BEL | 21 | 58:29:00 | |
| 2 | VAN DER POEL Mathieu | NED | 20 | 58:52:00 | 0:23 |
| 3 | VAN DER HAAR Lars | NED | 24 | 59:00:00 | 0:31 |
| 4 | PAUWELS Kevin | BEL | 31 | 59:03:00 | 0:34 |
| 5 | NYS Sven | BEL | 39 | 59:21:00 | 0:52 |
| 6 | VANTHOURENHOUT Michael | BEL | 22 | 59:23:00 | 0:54 |
| 7 | VERMEERSCH Gianni | BEL | 23 | 59:23:00 | 0:54 |
| 8 | VAN DER POEL David | NED | 23 | 59:23:00 | 0:54 |
| 9 | TARAMARCAZ Julien | SUI | 28 | 59:23:00 | 0:54 |
| 10 | SWEECK Laurens | BEL | 22 | 59:23:00 | 0:54 |
| 11 | PEETERS Rob | BEL | 30 | 59:25:00 | 0:56 |
| 12 | MERLIER Tim | BEL | 23 | 59:39:00 | 1:10 |
| 13 | SIMUNEK Radomir | CZE | 32 | 59:45:00 | 1:16 |
| 14 | BAESTAENS Vincent | BEL | 26 | 59:50:00 | 1:21 |
| 15 | AERNOUTS Jim | BEL | 26 | 1:00:01 | 1:32 |
| 16 | WALSLEBEN Philipp | GER | 28 | 1:00:22 | 1:53 |
| 17 | VANTHOURENHOUT Dieter | BEL | 30 | 1:00:26 | 1:57 |
| 18 | BOROS Michael | CZE | 23 | 1:00:45 | 2:16 |
| 19 | WUBBEN Niels | NED | 27 | 1:00:59 | 2:30 |
| 20 | VAN KESSEL Corne | NED | 24 | 1:01:08 | 2:39 |
| 21 | VAN AMERONGEN Thijs | NED | 29 | 1:01:11 | 2:42 |
| 22 | VANDEKINDEREN Jens | BEL | 22 | 1:01:26 | 2:57 |
| 23 | SWEECK Diether | BEL | 22 | 1:01:29 | 3:00 |
| 24 | ADAMS Joeri | BEL | 26 | 1:01:47 | 3:18 |
| 25 | VAN LEEUWEN Patrick | NED | 30 | 1:02:06 | 3:37 |
| 26 | CANT Kevin | BEL | 27 | 1:02:09 | 3:40 |
| 27 | HUYS Stijn | BEL | 29 | 1:02:52 | 4:23 |
