European titles also for Sanne Cant, Eli Iserbyt, Chiara Teocchi and Loris Rouiller
Total domination by Mathieu van der Poel at the Cyclo-Cross European Championships held in Tábor (Czech Republic). The strong Dutch rider, who is having a «perfect season» (as Van der Poel himself said after the finish), triumphed on the same circuit where he won the World Champion title in 2015. A great show of strength in which he dominated right from the start.
Competing as one of the favourites, Van der Poel set a particularly fast pace from the beginning and then continued alone right from the first lap crossing the finish line 23’’ ahead of his compatriot, Lars Van der Haar and 1.23” ahead of the European Champion titleholder, the Belgian, Toon Aerts.
For Van der Poel, already a winner in his career of two Juniors European Championships, this is his first continental title in the most important category.
This action-packed day in Tábor (which also organised the Masters European Championships on Saturday) then went on to host the Elite Women’s race and the result was also as expected in this category with a win by the Belgian, Sanne Cant. After swiftly responding to all attacks, the World Champion was involved in a head to head battle in the final with the Dutch rider, Lucinda Brand who finished second place in the sprint. In third was the Italian, Alice Maria Arzuffi.
Belgian success also in the Under 23s with the strong win by Eli Iserbyt over the young British talent Tom Pidcock. In the first part of the race, the best riders controlled the race by preventing any attacks, until the last lap, when Pidcock and Iserbyt made a move. The final sprint between the two was won by Iserbyt in front of her breakout partner (winner amongst other of the Juniors Time-Trial World Champion title less than one month ago). Third place went to the Dutch rider, Sieben Wouters.
After her triumph last year in Pont-Château, the Italian Chiara Teocchi confirmed her dominance in the Women’s Under 23s handling each attack with quiet determination. In the final sprint, Chiara Teocchi beat Laura Verdonschot (Belgium) and the Czech rider, Nikola Noskova, third at 4”.
The Juniors race was particularly exciting with a long battle between the Swiss, Loris Rouiller and the Czech Republic representative, Tomas Kopecky. In the final double sprint, Rouiller raced ahead of Kopecky, meanwhile third place was won by the Brit, Ben Tulett.
The next edition of the Cyclo-Cross European Championships will be held in Rosmalen (Netherlands) on 4 and 5 November 2018.
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