December 13/20 21:27 pm - Superprestige Gavere CX

Posted by Editoress on 12/13/20
 

The fourth round of the Telnet Superprestige series took place in Gavere, Belgium.

Women
Lucinda Brand (Telenet Baloise Lions) took her fourth consecutive win in the Superprestige series in Belgium. The Dutch rider, participating for the first time in Gavere, rode away from her countrywomen Betsema and world champion Alvarado.

Denise Betsema (Pauwels Sauces-Bingoal) was the first to attack from the start and took an early lead of ten seconds on her competitors. Brand (Telenet-Baloise Lions) joined her on the second of the five laps with Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Alpecin-Fenix) chasing.

At the end of the third lap, Brand upped the tempo, putting Betsema under pressure. Betsema hsoon trails by four seconds with Alvarado at 12 seconds.

Brand steadily expands her lead on the final two laps, starting the final lap with a twelve second gap.

Brand relaxed somewhat and arrived at the finish solo to claim her fourth victory in a row in the Telenet Superprestige. Betsema in second place at thirteen seconds. World champion Alvarado has to settle for third place. Brand also takes the lead in the rankings.

Top Canadians: Ruby West (Proximus - Alphamotorhomes - Doltcini CT) in 24th, Sidney Mcgill 37th and Siobhan Kelly 42nd.  Maghalie Rochette (Specialized/Feedback Sports) crashed just after the start, twisting her ankle and breaking the wheel of her bike. She's okay and should be good to go again next weekend (according to her Instagram report)

Men
Britian's Tom Pidcock (Trinity Racing) accomplished what few have at the Telenet Superprestige competition in Gavere. He held off world champion Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) winning his first classification cross against the pros. Toon Aerts took third place.

Gavere was the first Telenet Superprestige competition of the season for world champion Van der Poel.  At the start of the race everyone was looking forward to a duel between Van der Poel and European champion Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauces - Bingoal), who was the best in Gavere last year. Iserbyt missed his start and had to make up for time and places. At the front it was Pidcock who showed his climber legs and took a small lead on the early lap.

On lap two, Van der Poel closed the gap to Pidcock, dragging along Toon Aerts (Telenet-Baloise Lions). With the three all together at the the start of the third lap. The Belgian demonstrated his climbing abilities and put his challengers under pressure for the first time. But this does not quite  work and the leaders mainly work together to keep the chasing trio of Iserbyt, Vanthourenthout and Hermans at bay.

At about halfway through, Pidcock at the front opens the throttle again, but Van der Poel can go with hime and takes over the lead on the climb. For Aerts it is too much acceleration, he is loses ground metre by metre. In the meantime, Iserbyt has left the chasers behind, the European champion is gradually closing the gap.

At the front, Pidcock is now putting the world champion under pressure. Van der Poel began to make mistakes and when he had to pull his foot out watched as Pidcock rode away. At the end of lap 6, the world champion was 14 seconds behind. The field is completely torn apart: Aerts in 25 seconds in 3rd place and Iserbyt in 41 seconds in 4th place.

Pidcock continued to press on, holding off the world champion. Van der Poel eventually finished second at 25 seconds back. Third place for Toon Aerts. Iserbyt finishes fourth, but remains in the lead in the standings.

Sole Canadian Michael van den Ham (Easton/Giant) finished 37th

Results from Superprestige Gavere in Gavere, Belgium