Sanne Cant, shown her in Zonhoven, took yet another win at the fourth round of BPost. © Bart Hazen
Cant Continues to Roll
Today in Hasselt, Sanne Cant (Enertherm-BKCP) saw fit to repeat her success at this stage of the Bpost Bank Trofee last year, making the 2014-15 a season of Cant European dominance. Several laps in the race, Cant put in some hard efforts to create a gap over a barrage of Telenet-Fidea riders, including Ellen van Loy and Loes Sels.
Cant, the current World Cup leader after her win at Milton Keynes, was able to maintain a gap that swayed from 10-20 seconds until the second to last lap.
Sophie de Boer (Kalas-NNOF), the current time leader of the BPost series, offered Cant one of the best challenges on the day as she both left Van Loy behind and took the lead from Cant and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Rabobank Liv).
When Cant re-attacked, her final move stuck, and she was able to keep away from the other three followers, and even put in some time on them. Ferrand-Prévot was able to power away on the finishing stretch to beat De Boer for second.
Elle Anderson (Kalas-NNOF) was the lead American, finishing in 10th, while Caitlin Antonneau (Cannondale p/b cyclocrossworld.com) took 14th.
Because of her great results early on in the BPost series, De Boer is still in the lead, with Van Loy in second.
Pauwels Pulls Away from Van Aert for the Win
No one could accuse Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Napoleon Games) and Wout Van Aert (Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace) of holding back, although the BPost is still the series where Sven Nys (Crelan-AA Drink) is showing his dominance. The two riders fought a hard race until the final laps, when Pauwels was able to create a small gap and keep away from Van Aert until the end.
As with the women’s race the riders from Telenet-Fidea dictated a fast start. Tom Meeusen and Corne van Kessel were the first to strike, and acted as a well-oiled machine to keep away from the rest of the field. Van Kessel held the first solo lead while Lars van der Haar (Giant-Shimano Development Team) fell behind, but Van Kessel was bogged down in the back section of the course, allowing Pauwels and Van Aert to pull past him.
Pauwels looks over his shoulder with only two laps to go. Photo from Sporza
A group of four, including Nys, Meeusen, and Van Kessel, chased behind. Lars van der Haar (Giant-Shimano Development Team) followed in the second chase group. While he was able to take off from the start in his traditional form, he mistimed the barriers, and went sprawling over his handlebars.
With a few laps to go, the first chase group was whittled down to two: Nys and Meeusen. These two fought with each other until the finish, and shortly after Pauwels beat Van Aert, Meeusen was able to outsprint Nys to take the last spot on the podium.
Despite his fourth place finish, Nys still retains the overall lead of the BPost series.
American Stephen Hyde (JAM Fund) built on his earlier European race, and took a 20th place.
Stay tuned for Full Results.
