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Joris Nieuwenhais (Trek-Baloise Lions) made light of his lack of experience in the snow to deliver a hugely commanding performance at Val di Sole to clinch the first World Cup win of his career.
On a day when some high profile cyclocross racers Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) were not present, Nieuwenhuis led almost from the gun.
Second was last year’s runner-up Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Deceuninck), with young Belgian racer Joran Wyseure (Crelan-Corendon) taking a notable third.
Nieuwenhuis was unreachable, following up on Manon Bakker’s earlier victory in the Elite Women’s race to make it two out of two for the Netherlands at Val di Sole.
Asked afterwards if it had been as easy as it looked, the 27-year-old Nieuwenhuis took no time to answer ‘No’.
“My style always looks easy on TV, but of course, I’m always suffering as well. I just had to stay focused and concentrated, and then I knew I could do a good job because the form is good and I feel good on the bike. That was important today.”
“I did BMX as a kid and I think that really helped me today to stay calm, stay easy and to have the technique to do this course.”
“It was a very tough race,” Vandeputte added, “physically tougher than last year and technically tougher as well. The circumstances were very different.”
“In the first lap, I felt I could keep the same pace as him, but in the second I made too many mistakes, not really riding on the level you have to ride on to battle for the win. And then I just tried to stay consistent, but sadly he was a bit too strong today:”
The opening lap of the race saw Vandeputte and Nieuwenhuis immediately spearhead the 43-rider field, but Nieuwenhuis then pushed on alone even more quickly to gain a double-digit lead. Nieuwenhuis revealed earlier that he had not raced in…
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