He's got the condition, the motivation and a course which suits him down to the ground: to say that Laurens Sweeck is keenly looking forward to Sunday's Belgian Cyclocross National Championships would be no understatement at all.
Already crowned Belgian Champion in the speciality back in 2020, together with Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek), the 31-year-old Crelan-Corendon racer is widely tipped as a top favourite for the battle in Heusden-Zolder, where icy conditions forced a delay of an hour to the start to the Elite Women's race on Saturday.
"I am feeling confident for the Championships," Sweeck recently told Belgian news agency Belga.
“I have had a few bad days this season that I would have preferred to see go differently. But fortunately, the good days have been really good, and they are my reason to feel motivated."
Eighth in last year's Belgian Cyclocross Nationals Championships at Meulebeke, recent victories in Diegem and Koksijde are an evident boost to morale for Sweeck. Subsequently, Sweeck got in a good bout of training in Mallorca before heading back north to much worse January weather conditions. However, he is optimistic that the change from Mallorca warmth to Belgian cold will not take its toll on Sunday.
"That is not the case, the race only lasts an hour. The advantage of that training camp outweighs the disadvantages," he argued.
"Heusden-Zolder is 90% my thing, the other 10% is missing because there is no sandy part to the course. Otherwise, it would have been 100% my thing.”
Sweeck recognised that given his top results in recent weeks, he won't be able to fly under the radar on Sunday, where he and Nys may be stand-out favourites, but other leading Belgian 'cross names like Eli Iserbyt and Michael Vanthourenhout are also set to be in the mix.
“It's not illogical I've got that kind of status, but racing always remains unpredictable. All I can do is prepare well, do my thing and then hope for some good legs."
When it comes to predicting Sunday's outcome, "A sprint is possible, but only against one other guy rather than a small group of riders," he told Belga.
"I don't need to be afraid of that either, though: I can handle myself pretty well when it comes to sprinting."
"It would very special to wear that [National Champion's] jersey, too, and when you get a chance to do that - you have to grab it."
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