This Sunday, Tormans Cyclo Cross Team participated to another round of the World Cup in Tabor (Czech Republic). On top of the cold, a rather explosive than technical parcours awaited the six riders of the team.
Before noon, Théo Thomas (France) and Emiel Verstrynge (Belgium) were the first riders of the team to line up for their race in the U23 Men’s category. Verstrynge finished 5th, 13 seconds after winner Mees, taking his second top 5 in a row after last week’s European Championships in Drenthe. Thomas crossed the line in 30th position in this first U23 World Cup of the season.
Afterwards it was Marie Schreiber‘s turn. One year ago in Tabor, the rider from Luxembourg finished 2nd in the junior category behind her teammate Zoe Bäckstedt, who managed to take a back-to-back victory this Sunday. With her 21st place in the Elite category, 18 year old Schreiber achieved her best World Cup result of the season.
The trio composed of Quinten Hermans, Kevin Kuhn and Corné Van Kessel started in the Men’s Elite race a little before 15h. Hermans and Van Kessel were part of a group of six strong riders who managed to distance their competitors halfway through the race, until first named punctured. Despite the incident, the Belgian rider managed to get back to the front and contribute to an exciting battle in the final.
In the end, Hermans finished in 3rd place, 15 seconds behind European Champion van der Haar. With his 7th place, Corné van Kessel showed that his knee is recovering well from his crash at the European Championships. Kevin Kuhn crossed the line in 16th position. After this sixth race, Hermans moves up to third position in the World Cup standings.
« The parcours in Tabor enabled me to exploit my explosivity. In the second race half I had to draw on my reserves to ride to the pits on a flat tire and get back to the front afterwards. That’s probably the energy I was lacking in the final to battle for the victory until the finish line, even though I have to admit that Lars van der Haar was by far the strongest rider today. I’m happy that I finished on a World Cup podium for the third time this season. »
« At the European Championships last week I had an exceptionally good feeling and of course I was hoping to take advantage of the same legs and play a major role again here in Tabor. I raced in the front indeed, but in contrary to last week I never really had the feeling that I was able to set the pace or put pressure on my competitors. It definitely took me more energy than usual to follow the leaders and race in the first positions in this first U23 World Cup, so I think I got the most out of it today with this nice 5th place. »
