As a warm-up for Sunday’s Superprestige at Zonhoven, Wout van Aert (Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace) rode to a commanding win at Polderscross Kruibeke, distancing Michael Vanthourenhout (Sunweb-Napoleon Games) late for a solo win.
Wout van Aert, pictured here en route to a win at Superprestige Zonhoven, used his victory at Polderscross Kruibeke as a tune-up. © Bart Hazen
Tom Meeusen (Telenet-Fidea) took the holeshot, while Sven Nys (Crelan AA Drink) fell victim to a dropped chain. Struggling to fix it — Nys ended up off the back of the race early.
Similar to his CrossVegas Performance, Vanthourenhout struck out solo, with van Aert and Laurens Sweeck (Cibel-ERA) making the connection shortly thereafter.
Van Aert’s pace was too much to match, as Sweeck was the first to fall off. Shortly thereafter, van Aert was able to up the tempo even more, dropping Vanthourenhout, who went on to finish second, and riding in to victory with a 30 second gap. Sweeck finished in third.
In the Elite Women’s race, Jolien Verschueren (Telenet-Fidea), third place finisher at Zonhoven, came away with the victory by a healthy margin.
She was followed by Joyce Vanderbeken (Decock-Van Eyck), two minutes back in second place, and Margriet Kloppenburg (Jos Feron Lady Force) in third, 2:15 off the winner.
On a fun note — recently-retired Bart Wellens made an appearance in the Gentlemen’s race, finishing third — one place above his younger brother Geert. He takes the Wellens family bragging rights, at least until the next race!
Polderscross Kruibeke Results:
