Sven Nys and Niels Albert exchanges pre-race niceties.

Though his last really strong performance was back in Igorre, Jonathan Page was incredibly fast, at a certain point of the race he rode at second place which is quite impressive. I hope his form will last until the Worlds.

The women's race lasted a bit longer than usual, therefore I almost missed the start. Zdenek Stybar started out fast at the beginning of the race.

By now the mud got so thick that there were quite long sections where the riders were forced to jump off their bikes and run them through. This photo of Sven Nys was taken again with the Canon EF 300 f2.8 lens and the frame is a bit too narrow for my liking but as I said in the previous post, I need to learn the ins and outs of this lens.

Kevin Pauwels

Niels Albert

Sven Nys

Thijs Al had to miss the last couple weeks due to an injury but he returned to the World Cup circuit in Kalmthout.

Jonathan Page

After the start, I went to the same flight of stairs I had been during the women's race. It soon turned out that one of my favourite riders, Klaas Vantornout was leading the field in the first lap.

Dancing moves: Gerben De Knegt tackles the same corner with elegance.

Niels Albert

Sven Nys got hold up in the first lap but it didn't take him much time to catch up with the front of the field.

Stybar's first lap was quite rubbish but then he constantly gained ground and after the third or the fourth lap he started to lead the race. From time to time, he tried to put a significant gap between him and his chasers but this gap varied from lap to lap and never became substantial.

It was getting late and it the amount of available light was constantly decreasing. There's always a point where the flash is not just a fill-light anymore but becomes dominant in picture. If I can, I try not to use too much direct flash, however, in this situation I didn't really have a choice.

Another photo, same problem: not much available light, direct flash, not so good photo.

Gerben De Knegt in the penultimate lap.

There were some Mongolian riders competing again, sadly, they were lapped and called out of the race pretty soon, again.

Stybar started the last lap in the first place and there seemed to be a sizeable gap between him and chasing riders Nys and Albert.

However, Nys managed to overtake him half-way into the last lap.

Stybar was trying to catch up with Nys.

And that was Albert's plan as well.

But today, Nys was the strongest, claiming the win over Stybar and Albert.

Sven Nys started the race badly but managed to catch up around the half of the race and beat Stybar with 3 seconds.

Stybar seemed very strong throughout the race but in the last lap he couldn't keep Nys behind him. His second place means that he and Albert have equal number of points, but Albert won more races, hence he's still the overall Wold Cup leader.

Niels Albert finished third and he wasn't happy about it at all.

Stybar won his second World Cup race in a row, this time with a bigger margin than last week.

Albert was beaten by Stybar again, however, he is still leading the overall standings.

Sven Nys came third, though he led during the race for many laps.