Wellens wins in Oostmalle

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Bart Wellens ended his season with a bang by grabbing his first big victory since November 2008. The former world champion won the last round of the Gazet van Antwerpen Trophy in Oostmalle on Sunday after an eight-lap solo effort.

The 31-year-old Telenet-Fidea rider was joined on the podium by teammates Zdenek Stybar and Kevin Pauwels who finished second and third respectively. Belgian champion Sven Nys finished sixth which was more than enough to secure his seventh overall victory in the Gazet van Antwerpen Trophy.

The past year has been full of troubles for Wellens, a former world champion. The Belgian got back in form just in time to claim a selection for the world championships where he couldn't pull off a good result. His form kept improving, though, and after a victory at the small event in Eeklo he now won the last official cyclo-cross race of the season in Oostmalle.

After only two laps - right after the intermediate sprint - Wellens seized his moment and blasted away from the leader's group.

"This is a magnificent victory," Wellens told Sporza. "Early on I had to dig really deep to keep up with Nys but I knew that they were fighting for the points at the intermediate sprint. After the sprint the speed dropped and then it was my moment. I hoped that the speed would drop further behind me and it happened."

His old arch-rival Nys confirmed that it was a well-timed attack. "The only thing that mattered today was the overall classification in the GvA Trophy, so I was very happy to see Wellens pull away," said Nys. "He didn't play a role in the battle for the overall classification and Stybar couldn't ride because Wellens is his teammate. From that moment on I was at ease. I just made sure that I was always riding in the top-three of our group."

Before that there had been a lot of action on the sandy course in Oostmalle, where the Belgian championships were held. The ice from the championships was gone and the sand played a much more important role. Niels Albert, starting the day second overall on the GvA Trophy, missed his start completely and was at the back of the bunch. The Belgian never fully recovered from that dramatic start and eventually finished tenth. This meant that Stybar, who was tied with Albert in second place, pushed Albert back to third overall.

"I missed my pedal at the start and was the last rider to leave the grid," said Albert. "I came back quite well but I ended up riding at the back of the group, constantly losing contact, then my saddle broke off. I will not be losing any sleep because of this. Tonight we'll have good food and next year there will hopefully be a new Niels Albert."

Meanwhile, four riders were leading the race during the second lap: Nys, Stybar, Kevin Pauwels and Wellens. The latter led out the sprint for Stybar, who won ahead of Nys and Pauwels. Thanks to this win Stybar became the overall winner of the intermediate sprint competition.

Nys and Stybar eased off and then Wellens attacked. Teammates Pauwels and Stybar protected the attack and Nys didn't bother chasing either. Wellens quickly gathered half a minute on a chase group of 12 riders, also including Albert. A few minor accelerations from Bart Aernouts and Sven Vanthourenhout didn't close the gap and halfway the race Wellens had an advantage of 43 seconds.

With three laps to go Albert was confronted with saddle problems and he was forced to switch bikes, dropping out of the top-10. Meanwhile, Wellens increased his lead to one minute and it became clear that without any bad luck he would win in Oostmalle.

With Wellens safely in the lead Stybar accelerated during the penultimate lap and only Nys, Klaas Vantornout, Sven Vanthourenhout and Aernouts were able to follow the world champion. Just before the riders crossed the finish line to begin the final lap Vantornout blasted away. The Belgian clearly thought the race was over and thought he'd wrapped up second place. Vantornout suddenly realized his mistake, continued his efforts but halfway the last lap he was caught back by an unleashed Stybar.

Even more chaos occurred when the two hooked into each other in the sand, which resulted in Vantornout hitting a pole with his head. Sven Vanthourenhout and Nys powered past the two riders, and also Dieter Vanthourenhout and Pauwels returned to the front.

Meanwhile Wellens had plenty of time to celebrate his victory, pleasing his still numerous and fanatic fans. "The race went on for a long time, a very long time. It seemed like there was no end to it but that made the win feel even more satisfactory," said Wellens of the ten laps on the sandy course. "This was a season that I want to forget quickly but to end it like that is nice."

About a minute later the sprint for second place was set up. Nys didn't bother to contest the sprint and took his time to celebrate his overall win. "The last lap I had time to enjoy it. I didn't want to repeat Pijnacker where I chased down Richard Groenendaal but blew my engine, which allowed several others to overtake me. I saw Richard along the course and didn't want that to happen again," said Nys about why he didn't try to chase Wellens or make a last lap effort for second place.

Stybar hit the pavement first ahead of teammate Pauwels and won the sprint. The world champion was happy with today's action. "I won the intermediate sprint, finished second and my teammate won his first big race of the season, so I think that I can be happy," Stybar said.