Yorben van Tichelt made the most of his trip to China.
The Belgian came to Asia to cement his place in the UCI’s top 50 riders, and with two straight C1 victories, should be well on his way into the top 50.
While there wasn’t a first corner crash to force many to chase as they had to at the Fengtai race, the early double stairs ended up creating decisive gaps and quickly broke apart the race.
Race #1 victor Van Tichelt was determined to race from the front. The Belgian grabbed the holeshot with Marcel Wildhaber in tow, but did look back to see a long train of chasers. Anthony Clark made the group, hoping to repeat or improve on his third.
Thijs van Amorengen, Wildhaber and Van Tichelt took turns at the front, with Kenneth Hansen, Lorenzo Samparisi and Yu Takenouchi holding on.
Clark then Hansen popped off, and Van Tichelt was content to let the others lead during the nine lap race.
Heading back to the start, on the sixth lap, Van Tichelt sensed it was time, put in a huge attack, and suddenly the rest were racing for second. With three to go, his gap was eight seconds, and it would only grow from there.
Wildhaber led the chase, locking up his second straight silver medal but was almost caught by the race for third. Behind, Van Amorengen outkicked Takenouchi for the final podium spot, nearly overtaking an exhausted Wildhaber.
Yorben van Tichelt completes the Belgian sweep of the 2017 Qiansen Trophy cyclocross series.
With the victory and Vanderbeken’s win earlier in the day, Van Tichelt completed a Belgian sweep of all four UCI C1 races in China.
See the full report and results from the Qiansen Trophy Cyclocross Race #2 here.
2017 Qiansen Trophy – Yanqing Station Race #2 Cyclocross Brief Results:
- Yorben van Tichelt (BEL)
- Marcel Wildhaber (SWI)
- Thijs van Amorengen (NED)
- Yu Takenouchi (JPN)
- Lorenzo Samparisi (ITA)
