The Remembrance Day round of the 2025-2026 Superprestige series, the Jaarmarktcross in Niel, Belgium, was a thrilling contest among three riders, with Laurens Sweeck taking his first win of the season and third place Michael Vanthourenhout keeping the series lead.
Preliminaries
Having won the first two rounds, Michael Vanthourenhout led Niels Vandeputte by 5 points and Joris Nieuwenhuis by 6. Toon Aerts was feeling frisky after winning the European championship over the weekend.
Sweeck led into the sand section on Lap 1 but Kevin Kuhn came out of the sand first. Sweeck reassumed the front position to pull the still-long string. Nieuwenhuis, Vandeputte and Vanthourenhout lurked close behind on the dry course, but Aerts wasn’t on a good ride.
At the beginning of Lap 2 Nieuwenhuis grabbed the reins, and mid-circuit he tried to drop the others.
On Lap 3 of 10 Sweeck reestablished himself as the locomotive of the train. Nieuwenhuis had a problem, as he utterly disappeared from that front group. Vanthourenhout applied pressure and Sweeck and Vandeputte came along for the ride.
Nieuwenhuis was snake-bitten on Tuesday. Jente Michels made a bid to bridge to the leading trio. All four cleared the Lap 5‘s sand pit. Vanthourenhout kept the accelerator pressed and started lapping riders. Michels still trailed.
Michels finally latched on on Lap 6, but just long enough to watch Vanthourenhout surge clear, Sweeck his closest chaser.
On Lap 7 Filipe Orts brought a couple of fellows over to the Vanthourenhout group. Vandeputte cleared the sand section and moved into primary position. A slip put Vanthourenhout into fourth. Vandeputte crossed the line eight seconds before Sweeck.
Vandeputte headed into the penultimate lap six seconds ahead of Vanthourenhout and Sweeck, who controlled the podium spots. The sand section reunited the trio.
The bell lap would tell the tale. Emiel Verstrynge was suddenly crowding the threesome. Vanthourenhout led into the sand and created a little gap. He pressed the issue but Sweeck and Vandeputte answered his questions. On the final technical challenge Vanthourenhout suffered a mechanical and wouldn’t be part of the final reckoning. In the sprint Sweeck came around Vandeputte for the big win. Vanthourenhout leads Vandeputte by four points in the…
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