A relaxed Niels Albert takes the win at the last Trophy race of the season. © Bart Hazen
OOSTMALLE, BELGIUM – In the final round of the Bpost Bank Trophy series, Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) sealed his overall series lead with a commanding solo performance to take the win. Albert raced in his favorite fashion today, attacking on the second lap, establishing a gap, and then using the rest of the race to time-trial away from chasers Klaas Vantornout and Kevin Pauwels. The two Sunweb-Napolean games teammates had had Jim Aernouts with them as well, but by the closing laps were alone in pursuit. Pauwels capped off a season of bad luck with a finale, as he crashed hard into some fencing and, rather than continue his pursuit, hurled his bike into the fence and stormed away on foot, leaving Vantornout to finish off a very successful season alone.
Sven Nys never factored in the race, getting off to a poor start and conceding to Albert’s dominance early on. A late-race mechanical took him out of contention for the podium, as before it happened he was around ten seconds behind Vantornout and Pauwels, but the World Champion made it to the pits in time to stay in the top ten.
In the women’s race, Sanne Cant (BKCP) overtook Sanne van Paassen (Rabobanke) after van Paassen suffered a mechanical, and took the win ahead of Sabrina Stultiens (Rabobank) and Helen Wyman (Kona).
Brief Results:
1. Niels Albert
2. Klaas Vantornout
3. Jim Aernouts
4. Radomir Simunek
5. Dieter Vanthourenhout
6. Philipp Walsleben
7. Bart Wellens
8. Thjis Al
9. Sven Nys
10. Rob Peeters
