Saturdays’ fifth round of the 2024-2025 UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Hulst, the Netherlands, was where Niels Vandeputte made his mark on the elite men’s category. His third victory of the season was his first elite World Cup triumph, the Belgian having been runner-up twice. Series leader Michael Vanthourenhout, recently red hot, was cooled down on the difficult, muddy Hulst course, but he kept his lead, 28 points atop Toon Aerts.
Earlier in the day Emilien Belzile was top Canadian in the Junior men’s contest, while Maxime St. Onge was top Canuck in the U23 men’s race.
Preliminaries
Michael Vanthourenhout was on top of the table. He had won his last three races in a row, including the Dublin and Namur World Cups. Absent Mathieu van der Poel won last year’s Hulst round.
Evan Russell, Fabian Merino and Cody Scott made up the Canadian contingent.
The hole shot on Lap 1 belonged to Vandeputte. Lars van der Haar tracked Vandeputte, Vanthourenhout was Position 3 and Laurens Sweeck was just behind him. Russell was 24th coming off the start line. Toon Aerts crashed just before the planks. Vandeputte crossed the line only five seconds ahead of van der Haar and Vanthourenhout, Eli Iserbyt just behind them. Cody Scott was 36th, Russell 50th.
Vandeputte pried out more space at the start of Lap 2. Iserbyt got tangled in the netting and then mounted a clean bike. Vanthourenhout was in Position 2 when he suffered a dramatic, over-the-bars crash on the downhill. Filipe Orts and Thibau Nys were suddenly the closest pursuers, part of a swelling group. The leader enjoyed a 23-second gap by the line. Scott was 41st, Russell 56th.
Vanthourenhout, Orts and Iserbyt shed the other chasers at the beginning of Lap 3 of 7. There was a bike change for Vandeputte as he continued to tame the chewed-up course. Pim Ronhaar replaced van der Haar as the Baloise Trek Lion in the chase group. Vanthourenhout crashed on the same descent as he did on Lap 2. Orts was the closest rider, 31 seconds in arrears, at the end of the third circuit. Cody Scott held 46th.
Vanthourenhout kept crashing on Lap 4, so Emiel Verstrynge replaced him in the main chase, but Orts and Iserbty put Verstrynge and Ronhaar in their rearview mirrors. The series leader was down to ninth.
On Lap 5, Orts and Iserbyt carried on their fine podium skirmish, and in the process…
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