Cyclo-Cross World Cup: Joris Nieuwenhuis wins in Val di Sole

Joris Nieuwenhuis (Baloise Trek Lions) stormed to victory on the snowy Cyclo-Cross World Cup course at Val di Sole.

He led into the first corner and wasn’t to be seen again, consistently extending his advantage over Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin - Deceuninck) who remained in second until the finish.

Racing was fast from the start with a hotly contested battle to get to the first corner in the lead. For all but the leading two riders of Nieuwenhuis and Vandeputte the field found themselves forced to run through the first technical section.

At the close of the opening lap, Nieuwenhuis found himself with a healthy 10-second lead over Vandeputte and 34 seconds over Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen - Bingoal) in third. Even with the difficulties presented by the conditions on the course, Nieuwenhuis was able to put on a display, riding most of the course where others needed to jump off and run.

The fight for the first corner proved pivotal as the race entered the third lap and Nieuwenhuis had more than doubled his lead to Vandeputte with the gap sitting at over 20 seconds. Vandeputte was the only man within a minute of the leader with a small chase group containing Iserbyt and Laurens Sweeck (Crelan-Corendon) one minute and 10 seconds down.

As the race entered the second half the chase group behind the front two riders began to fragment with Joran Wyseure (Crelan-Corendon) distancing the other riders.

In the closing laps of the race, it was Wyseure who was setting the fastest lap times of the day with the gap to second place Vandeputte narrowing. Nothing was going to stand between Nieuwenhuis and the top step of the podium. He was on another level, consistently extending his lead as each lap passed.

Eventually he would take the win 1:01 ahead of Vandeputte in second with Wyseure rounding off the podium 1:33 down on the winner.