The 2025-2026 Superprestige series resumed on Tuesday in fast, dry Heusden-Zolder, Belgium after a five-week break. With Mathieu van der Poel taking the day off, the rest of the field had a chance. Wout van Aert and Tibor del Grosso engaged in an engrossing scrap, with the young Dutch champion winning in a two-up sprint. Tyler Clark was top Canadian in 31st.
Preliminaries
Niels Vandeputte might not have won any rounds yet, but at the top of the table he led double-round winner Michael Vanthourenhout by two points and Merksplas victor Joris Nieuwenhuis by six.
Rhett Bates, Liam Sargent, Tyler Clark, Cody Scott and Remi Brisebrois made up the Canadian contingent.
The start and finish took place on the F1 motorcar track. Wout van Aert had a lot of riders to surf through and just missed a crash. Kevin Kuhn seized the hole shot with Filipe Orts on his six. Vandeputte didn’t get a great start. Cody Scott led the way for the Canadians. Del Grosso moved up to the pointy end of the race. Del Grosso, Kuhn and Orts crossed the line with a nine-second gap. Van Aert was 12th. Clark was 39th.
On Lap 2 of 8, Orts scrambled to keep up. Van Aert, Nieuwenhuis and Vandeputte were part of the closest chase which swallowed Orts. Del Grosso and Kuhn took 14 seconds into the next circuit.
Van Aert pulled the pursuit pack on Lap 3 and fragmented it. Del Grosso and Kuhn waited for the link up.
Nine chaps headed into Lap 4 together, while Nieuwenhuis toiled to make it ten. Vanthourenhout was the point man. It was as-you-were by the finish line.
Van Aert finally grabbed the reins at the start of Lap 5. His efforts produced gaps. Del Grosso wanted the lead back. The Visma-Lease a Bike man kept up the pressure and had only del Grosso with him by the line, Vanthourenhout in Position 3 nine seconds behind.
Both Nieuwenhuis and Pim Ronhaar climbed off their bikes at the start of Lap 6. Meanwhile, del Grosso and van Aert carried on their raid, increasing their advantage. The young Dutchman did the majority of the work.
Van Aert looked like he wanted to rid himself of del Grosso on the penultimate lap, and yet a duo heard the bell. Behind, six fellows were locked in a podium scrap, Orts attacking over the line.
And so it came down to the bell lap. Both riders led in the first half. Del Grosso was quicker over the planks, but van…
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