Tom Pidcock and Wout Van Aert crossed swords in Sunday’s ninth round of the World Cup on a cold, muddy course in Dublin, Ireland. But it was Van Aert’s skirmish with a carelessly held towel in the latter half of the race that was his biggest challenge in taking his first ‘cross victory of the season. Mathieu van der Poel, winner of the last two rounds, was not on the Emerald Isle, nor was Canadian flag bearer Cameron Jette. Series leader Lauren Sweeck increased his advantage over Eli Iserbyt.
Sweeck led Iserbyt by six points atop the table heading into the ninth round. Iserbyt claimed the first three rounds and Sweeck Rounds 4 and 5.
As usual, Lars van der Haar grabbed the hole shot, but Iserbyt came out swinging on Lap 1, with Sweeck on his 6. Van Aert had to start down in the second row and swim up the stream. Both Pidcock and Van Aert moved up. The string was intact at the line, Iserbyt pulling it, Pidcock sixth, Van Aert seventh.
Iserbyt’s teammate Michael Vanthourenhout came to the front to be the engine at the start of Lap 2. A quartet of Iserbyt, Pidcock, Van Aert and Vanthourenhout established itself but van der Haar sewed up the hole.
Van Aert got caught up in barriers near the pits at the beginning of Lap 3 of 7 and he dropped back to 11th. Sweeck grabbed the steering wheel and pulled the pack of 11 before flying the coop. But it would be Pidcock pushing on with Sweeck and Vanthourenhout just ahead of Van Aert at the line.
Pidcock, Van Aert, Vanthourenhout would be the next group to break free at the start of Lap 4. Van Aert had to run in the sand, but in the latter half of the circuit, it was soon down to Pidcock vs Van Aert.
Going by the pits on Lap 5, Van Aert’s rear mech got caught up in a towel belonging to a mechanic on the other side of the fence, and the Belgian had to dismount and trot backwards on the course to enter the pits and get another machine. He had to make up 13 seconds.
Van Aert made his return before the penultimate lap. Pidcock began to flag and by the time everyone heard the bell, Pidcock was in third, with Van Aert leading Sweeck by 10 seconds.
Van Aert hung tough to earn Win One of the ‘cross season.
Round 10 is next Sunday in Val di Sole, Italy.
2022-2023 UCI ‘Cross World Cup, Round 9, Dublin
1) Wout Van Aert (Belgium/Jumbo-Visma) +59:36
2) Laurens Sweeck (Belgium/Crelan-Fristads) +0:14
3) Tom Pidcock (Great Britain/Ineos) +0:17
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