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Wout Van Aert took a natural hat trick of 2022-2023 Superprestige victories on Saturday in Gullegem’s rainy penultimate round. After 10 cyclocross races this season, Van Aert has seven wins and three runner-up spots. Fourth place Lars van der Haar might not have won a race (X2O Badkamers Trofee) since the first day of November and claimed zero rounds of the Superprestige, but he is poised to win his first overall title.
Van der Haar, who won the 2013-2014 World Cup, led European champion Michael Vanthourenhout by seven points at the top of the table going into Saturday’s race. Vanthourenhout had clawed back a point in coming fourth in Diegem. Neither had claimed a round so far. Wout Van Aert and Laurens Sweeck each had taken a brace of victories and Tom Pidcock and Eli Iserbyt both claimed a win.
With rain tipping down, Vanthourenhout finished Lap 2 just ahead of Van Aert and Iserbyt, with van der Haar trailing by a few seconds.
As Van Aert, Iserbyt and van der Haar closed in on Vanthourenhout in Lap 3 of 9, Van Aert got caught up on the barriers. Van Aert and Vanthourenhout crossed the line together, with Iserbyt 3 seconds back and van der Haar at +0:07.
On Lap 4, van der Haar was still lagging a bit behind the other three.
Iserbyt toiled to stay in contact with Van Aert and Vanthourenhout on Lap 4, but van der Haar was permanently dropped. Vanthourenhout had to run in the sand while his pals stayed mounted. Van Aert applied the pressure. Vanthourenhout kept looking down at his machine’s components in Position 3.
Van Aert was free on Lap 5, his lead over Iserbyt up to 15 seconds.
It finished Van Aert, Iserbyt, Vanthourenhout, van der Haar.
The final round is February 11 in Middelkerke.
2022-2023 Superprestige, Round 7, Gullegem
1) Wout Van Aert (Belgium/Jumbo-Visma) 1:03:05
2) Eli Iserbyt (Belgium/Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) +0:22
3) Michael Vanthourenhout (Belgium/Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) +0:22
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Canadian Cycling Magazine…
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