Meeusen on another level

Building on the top form that brought him to second place in elite men's races, Tom Meeusen won the third World Cup round in the Under 23 men's category. The Belgian is also the new leader in the World Cup standings after former leader Robert Gavenda could only manage 16th at the race track of Zolder, Belgium.

In the World Cup standings Meeusen now leads ahead of Gavenda, Arnaud Jouffroy and Cominelli.

After a first-lap that included multiple crashes, a lead group was formed including Meeusen and Belgian champion Vincent Baestaens, Dutch riders Tijmen Eising and Micki Van Empel, Italians Matteo Trentin and Elia Silvestri and German Sascha Weber. World Cup leader Gavenda chased at 10 seconds behind this group.

A little later, Silvestri accelerated on the selective course and only Tijmen Eising was able to keep up with the small Italian, although Meeusen bridged up to the two leaders during the second lap. Halfway through the race, the three leaders had a gap of 15 seconds over Pawel Szczepaniak (Poland), Van Empel and Mathieu Boulo (France), who were both struggling to keep pace.

During the fifth of nine laps Meeusen shifted to a higher gear and dropped Eising and then Silvestri. With two laps to go, Meeusen had a 20-second gap over Silvestri and Eising. Behind those two, Christian Cominelli and Szczepaniak were coming closer to the remaining podium spots, trailing by another 10 seconds. Silvestri opted not to wait for compatriot Cominelli and during the penultimate lap, he jumped away from Eising, towards his best ever World Cup result in the Under 23 men's category.

Szczepaniak held off Cominelli for fourth place, and his compatriot Marek Konwa finished sixth.

American Daniel Summerhill finished 25th.  He didn't have a good start and fought for a top-20 result before fading during the last laps when he was found himself riding between two groups. "I didn't have a good day, which is a shame when you're here at such a big race. I don't want to sound negative. I just need to make sure that I get going again," Summerhill said to Cyclingnews.

Another American, Zach McDonald, was 39th.  A bad start combined with bike problems saw him fade to 50th place before picking it back up into the top 40 thanks to some decent late-lap times.  "I had my usual slow start, but then I had bike problems and dropped my chain several times. I thought about giving up but then picked it back up as a training."

Results