This was the second race this year in this area – the first being Zonhoven just a couple of weeks ago. The morning greeted us in Nieuwpoort with an almost impenetrable fog, but as soon as we left Brussels, it eased up and the sun started to shine – another sunny race, great…
I really liked the course in Hasselt, it was easy to get around and access most parts of the course, though there were a few overzealous marshalls who made life slightly harder, but I guess they were just doing their jobs. The U23 race turned out to be quite interesting as Gianni Vermersch crashed in the final corner before the finish and lost 3-4 places as his drivetrain was gone and Wietse Bosmans threw a bit of a tantrum at the staff in the press tent as his wound proved to be rather painful.
The elite men’s race remained very exciting until the very end, the lead group of four consisted of Zdenek Stybar, Sven Nys and Kevin Pauwels and I was happy to see Tom Meeusen there as well. All four of them arrived together at the finish, but only Pauwels and Stybar went for it and the former turned out to be in better form, even though it was a metter of inches.
The weekend doesn’t end it here, come back tomorrow for more photos from the fourth Superprestige at Asper-Gavere!
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