Wout van Aert strikes in Gullegem

Wout van Aert claimed his first victory of the cyclocross season in Gullegem. Eli Iserbyt fought back until the very last lap but ultimately had to concede defeat to the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider.

Crelan-Corendon teammates Laurens Sweeck and Emiel Verstrynge entered the Gullegem field side by side, followed by Wout van Aert (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), who had started from the third row. After the first lap, a lead group of nine riders was formed. The biggest name to miss the first split was Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Deceuninck), leader in the Telenet Superprestige.

It was a very tightly contested race. Several riders tried to push to the front, but making a gap proved difficult. It wasn’t until the fourth lap that Wout van Aert made his first move. Only Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen – Cibel Clementines) was able to follow him at first.

After a mistake by Van Aert in the sand, Vanthourenhout took a small lead. Van Aert closed the gap and brought Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen – Cibel Clementines) and Joran Wyseure (Crelan-Corendon) back into the race. Iserbyt took advantage of this and launched an attack in the sixth lap. Vanthourenhout looked to Van Aert to close the gap, which happened shortly after. Moreover, Van Aert had also left Vanthourenhout and Wyseure behind.

Van Aert pressed harder in the penultimate lap. Iserbyt saw the yellow jersey pull away bit by bit but didn’t completely crack. The gap between the two was just one second going into the final lap.

One minute later, Iserbyt caught back up to the front. The Belgian champion immediately took the lead and put Van Aert under pressure. But Van Aert did not fold and answered Iserbyt with the same intensity. Two mistakes in less than a minute ultimately proved fatal for the Belgian champion. Van Aert rode to his first victory of the season and took Iserbyt and Vanthourenhout with him onto the podium in Gullegem.