Pauwels wins in Hoogerheide to secure World Cup

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Belgian Kevin Pauwels continued his surge to the top of the cyclo-cross scene, taking home his first World Cup overall victory by winning his fourth round of the season in Hoogerheide. The Sunweb-Revor rider sped away from reigning World Champion Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) and his own teammate Klaas Vantornout in the final laps to win by a comfortable margin.

It's the first-ever overall win for Pauwels in one of the major cyclo-cross series.

"This means a lot to me," Pauwels said. The 27 year-old Belgian isn't a man of the big words and that didn't change after this major achievement. "I'm pleased it is the World Cup that I win because the races are not only in Belgium."

Pauwels came into the race 20 points ahead of Belgian champion Sven Nys, and the Belgian champion would have had to win and relegate Pauwels to fourth in order to claim the World Cup title.

The possibility sparked a tactical battle between the season's two main protagonists. Nys claimed the hole shot, but from there Nys didn't take the initiative and Pauwels camped on his rear wheel.

A first acceleration from Vantornout, Francis Mourey (FDJ-Big Mat) and Tom Meeusen (Telenet-Fidea) was allowed some distance. A second acceleration from Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) was answered by Nys and Pauwels, with Stybar following little later. The trio caught up with the leaders and once more there a cease-fire up front that allowed nine men to amass at the front of the race.

"That wasn't a good situation for me," Pauwels said.

An attack by Vantornout and Meeusen put a gap on the big guns, but at the end of the lap an attack by Stybar neutralized their lead, setting up Pauwels for a counter-attack.

"When Stybar attacked I went for it. Already during the first lap I knew that Sven Nys wasn't good because he would've been closer on my wheel. Once we hit the road and Nys wasn't there I knew for sure that he wasn't good," Pauwels said. From there he never looked back to get some support and set a high pace.

Together with Vantornout, Stybar and Meeusen there were four leaders although Meeusen quickly dropped back. "I blew up but that doesn't matter because I was one of the few riders who went full gas during a race on Saturday," Meeusen told Cyclingnews. The three remaining leaders kept Albert at a short distance while Nys lost fifteen seconds per lap. "It didn't go well although I tried my best. I can't say much about it. Yesterday I rode a race so maybe that's the reason," Nys said.

With the overall win in the World Cup seemingly in the pocket, Pauwels started flying and halfway through the penultimate lap he powered away from Stybar. "Actually I was a bit too confident in the last lap. When running I had a side stitch, and they gained time back on me," Pauwels said.

In the end Pauwels easily stood tall and grabbed his fourth World Cup win of the season. Behind him Stybar held off Vantornout for second place. "I wasn't as good as last week in Liévin but that's probably because I trained hard this week. Kevin is the well-deserved winner, not only today but in the whole World Cup," Stybar said.

Third-placed Vantornout was a happy man at the finish line after supporting his teammate to the race win and overall World Cup victory. "It's fantastic what we did today. I did my job today and Kevin finished it to perfection," Vantornout said.

Half a minute later Albert rolled in as fourth, just ahead of Rob Peeters (Telenet-Fidea) and Nys. The presence of Peeters in the top five was a surprise since he had a disastrous start and came through in 46th position. From there he steadily moved up and at the halfway point he moved into the top 10. At the finish line he sprinted faster than Nys and Meeusen to a great fifth place. "I didn't want to crash and took it easy early on. I had a super day and hopefully I'll have that again next Sunday," Peeters said.

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