In a tight race Sunday at Krawatencross, the penultimate round of the 2024-2025 X2O Badkamers Trofee in Lille, Belgium, Laurens Sweeck outsprinted overall leader Eli Iserbyt and second-place Toon Aerts to take his second X2O victory of the season. Sweeck tallied his seventh win of 2024-2025.
Preliminaries
After the last round in Koksijde, Iserbyt’s lead shrank from 3:36 over Lars van der Haar to 2:48 over Aerts. No elite male had won more than one round. Sweeck took Koksijde and Niels Vandeputte claimed last year’s race in Lille.
This season’s Superprestige champion Vandeputte scored the hole shot on Lap 1. Aerts snuck into Position 2 before the first sand section. A Kevin Kuhn crash snipped the string in two. Aerts earned the maximum bonus seconds by crossing the line first. Vandeputte was just behind him, and Iserbyt and teammate Michael Vanthourenhout, the Herenthals round victor, chased three seconds behind.
The front train was 15 cars in length on Lap 2, Aerts carrying on as the locomotive. But Filipe Orts attacked over the line.
On Lap 3 of 8 Orts held off Vanthourenhout from joining Iserbyt out front and running interference, but Vanthourenhout finally squeezed through and slowed it up. Iserbyt’s lead was six seconds by the line.
Aerts and Sweeck carved their way around Vanthourenhout on Lap 4 and found Iserbyt’s rear wheel again. In a sandy section, Aerts tried to budge by Iserbyt and rubbed the shorter rider with his shoulder. Iserbyt, perhaps mindful of the Exact Cross incident with Ryan Kamp that got him disqualified, simply gestured in frustration. Meanwhile, Sweeck escaped.
Sweeck galloped free at the front on Lap 5, Aerts, Iserbyt, Vandeputte and Joris Nieuwenhuis in order behind him. A gap formed between Sweeck, Aerts and Iserbyt and the others. Vandeputte linked up with the trio to make a quartet.
Nieuwenhuis brought British champion Cameron Mason over on Lap 6. Van der Haar and Jen Adams joined the party as well but they were lagging by the line.
The start of the penultimate lap saw Aerts grabbed the reins. Then Vandeputte seized the lead and tried to power away, but his gap was wee by the time he heard the bell.
Aerts continued to insist during the bell lap, taking over the trailblazing from Vandeputte. The effect was to lengthen the string. Who was going to win this race?…
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