This Monday, the delegation of Tormans Cyclo Cross Team travelled to Heusden-Zolder for another race of the Superprestige. Except for Marie Schreiber, Emiel Verstrynge and Joran Wyseure, the riders present in Dendermonde one day before rode their second consecutive race. Despite the rainfall in the preceding days, the circuit next to the formula one circuit in Heusden-Zolder did not contain any mud and preserved very fast.
Against a very high number of competitors, Zoe Bäckstedt managed to go home with 17th place among the Elite Women. The 17 year old British rider of development team Tormans-Acrog concluded the five laps of 2.7 kilometer a little more than 3 minutes after winner Lucinda Brand.
At 15h, five riders of Tormans Cyclo Cross Team lined up among the 122 participants of the Elite Men’s race. Quinten Hermans and Corné van Kessel took advantage of their excellent start from the first row to occupy a position in the top 5 in the first lap. Hermans chased Wout Van Aert after a mistake of Toon Aerts in the second lap in an eight rider group with also Corné van Kessel and Kevin Kuhn.
Halfway through the race, the chasing group was only composed of Hermans, Iserbyt and Pidcock. Hermans battled for the podium for a long time against his two companions, but finished 4th at 1 minute 21 from the Belgian champion. Also Corné van Kessel showed his regularity once more by finishing 6th at the end of the ninth and final lap, just like last season. Swiss champion Kevin Kuhn, winner of an U23 World Cup on this circuit, crossed the line in 8th place after helping van Kessel in the final quarter. Thomas Mein took 21th place, with Théo Thomas finishing in 59th place with stomach problems.
Thanks to this new place of honor, Quinten Hermans climbs to 3rd place in the Superprestige ranking with one race remaining. On Thursday December 30th, the whole Tormans Cyclo Cross Team will be present in Loenhout for the Azencross.
With over 120 riders at the start line, we knew that the start would be extremely important today. It went super fast and this pace actually never slowed down until the finish! It was clear today who recovered well from yesterday’s very hard race. I went all out in the World Cup in Dendermonde, so I’m happy with today’s performance. I’m pleased to see that I still reach the same level as in the beginning of the season, although it would be nice to finish on the podium again after a very long series of top 5 results. Of course, the presence of Pidcock, Van Aert and van der Poel usually means that several steps of the podium are occupied already. It is impressive how strong they are. I’ll try again next Thursday in Loenhout!
Even though I had a good sleep last night and fueled well, I wasn’t sure whether I recovered enough from yesterday’s hard race. But as I usually perform well here in Heusden-Zolder, I was going into the race with confidence. I can’t explain why I often race well here as I’m not always exceptionally strong on fast circuits. But the course with its steep and short climbs offered me again a very nice result today. I had to give all I had to stay with the second group and managed to do this until the final lap. I’m very happy with this performance!
