January 29/22 16:03 pm - Belgium Sweeps Under-23 Men's CX Worlds UPDATED
Posted by Editoress on 01/29/22
After the Dutch took the world title in Under-23 men last year and dominated the World Cup this year, it was the turn of Belgium at the world championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas, sweeping the podium and putting six riders in the top-10. Joran Wyseure took the title after an early attack, with team mate Emiel Verstrynge taking second and Thibau Nys (son of legendary Sven Nys) winning the sprint for third. Hugo Brisebois was the top Canadian in 34th, followed by Matt Leliveld in 35th, Noah Ramsay in 38th and Owen Clark, who had a mechanical on the first lap after someone crashed into his rear derailleur, in 39th.
This was expected to be a Belgian-Dutch battle, and the two rivals did not disappoint. After a blazing fast first lap, Wyseure attacked on the second, on the long climb. The Dutch seemed disorganized in their chase, giving him to open a ten second gap by the top, and he never looked back, holding a steady 14 to 16 second lead.
Behind, the chase was led primarily by Mees Hendrikx (Ned), with his Dutch team mates struggling. Verstrynge and Nys just sat on as the Dutch wore themselves out and then, on Lap 6 of 7, Verstrynge attacked in the same place as Wyseure, with Hendrikx unable to respond. In the sprint for third between Nys, Hendrikx and Cameron Mason (GBr), Nys easily swept around them to make it an all Belgian podium.
"Normally my start is not very good," explained Wyseure, "but today it went quite well. On the second lap I thought I would ride full gas on the climb, and we would see what I would get. I had some metres and I was able to ride the whole race at my own tempo, and it was enough for the win today. This is not normal ... I'm really happy with my performance."
"It's really nice that it's three Belgian guys on the podium. Especially with Emiel; in the Belgian championships he was the best and he won the race, and today i win the race and he was second. I'm really happy."
"It was pretty good, I had a decent start," said Hugo Brisebois. "I might have gone a bit too hard on the first lap, but after that I settled in pretty nicely into my rhythm and just pushed from there. My only strategy was to go as hard as I can for the last race of the season and not make any mistakes, and carry good speed out of the corners, because there were a lot of technical corners. I'm pretty happy with how the season went. I wasn't really sure what to expect as a first year U23, coming into this season and racing with the Elites in some races. So every race was better then the previous one and I'm really happy to cap off my season with a top-30 at the world champs."
Results
| U23 Men, 7 laps ( 21.8km) | |
| 1 Joran Wyseure (Belgium) | 0:49:21 |
| 2 Emiel Verstrynge (Belgium) | at 0:13 |
| 3 Thibau Nys (Belgium) | 0:33 |
| 4 Mees Hendrikx (Netherlands) | 0:33 |
| 5 Cameron Mason (United Kingdom) | 0:33 |
| 6 Ryan Kamp (Netherlands) | 0:38 |
| 7 Niels Vandeputte (Belgium) | 0:40 |
| 8 Pim Ronhaar (Netherlands) | 1:15 |
| 9 Gerben Kuypers (Belgium) | 1:32 |
| 10 Jente Michels (Belgium) | 1:37 |
| 11 Antoine Huby (France) | 1:51 |
| 12 Dario Lillo (Switzerland) | 1:55 |
| 13 Samuele Leone (Italy) | 2:10 |
| 14 Joseph Blackmore (United Kingdom) | 2:15 |
| 15 Joris Delbove (France) | 2:33 |
| 16 Gonzalo Inguanzo Macho (Spain) | 2:43 |
| 17 Scott Funston (United States) | 2:44 |
| 18 Davide Toneatti (Italy) | 2:45 |
| 19 Loris Rouiller (Switzerland) | 3:12 |
| 20 Isaac Del Toro Romero (Mexico) | 3:14 |
| 21 Andrew Strohmeyer (United States) | 3:21 |
| 22 Matej Stransky (Czech Republic) | 3:33 |
| 23 Daxton Mock (United States) | 3:46 |
| 24 Miguel Rodriguez Novoa (Spain) | 3:57 |
| 25 Matyas Fiala (Czech Republic) | 4:23 |
| 26 Jan Sommer (Switzerland) | 4:32 |
| 27 Lars Sommer (Switzerland) | 4:32 |
| 28 Jules Van Kempen (United States) | 4:33 |
| 29 Sam Noel (United States) | 4:39 |
| 30 Filip Maard (Sweden) | 4:58 |
| 31 Theo Thomas (France) | 4:58 |
| 32 Gustav Dahl (Denmark) | 5:07 |
| 33 Pascal Toemke (Germany) | 5:14 |
| 34 Hugo Brisebois (Canada) | 5:31 |
| 35 Matt Leliveld (Canada) | 5:35 |
| 36 Tommy Servetas (United States) | 5:41 |
| 37 Carlos Alfonso Garcia Trejo (Mexico) | 5:50 |
| 38 Noah Ramsay (Canada) | 6:13 |
| 39 Owen Clark (Canada) | 6:58 |
| 40 Sean Nolan (Ireland) | 7:24 |
| 41 Dean Harvey (Ireland) | -3 laps |
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