For its very first trip to the USA, Tormans Cycle Cross Team brought an important contingent to the start of the first round of the World Cup 2021-2022, organized in Waterloo (Wisconsin). After the 34th place of young Marie Schreiber (18) in her first World Cup in the Elite Women category, the male delegation composed of Quinten Hermans, Kevin Kuhn, Thomas Mein, Corné Van Kessel and Emiel Verstrynge started on a dry parcours.
Quinten Hermans immediately showed that he was feeling good, the rider from Tessenderlo took the race lead from the start with Michael Vanthourenhout. As he was leading the race, he was the first one to discover that the asphalt had become slippery because of the sudden rainfall. Behind Hermans’ crash, Van Kessel and Verstrynge managed to avoid other crashed riders. Consequently, Van Kessel briefly rode in 3rd place.
Meanwhile, Hermans already started a fabulous comeback. After an impressive effort, he almost managed to return to Vanthourenhout, who was chasing Eli Iserbyt. In the end, Hermans took 3rd place and a second consecutive podium after Gieten.
« Before my crash I had an excellent feeling on the bike, probably like never before! At first I didn’t feel that the rain has made the surface slippery, so I went full speed through the asphalted corner. It wasn’t a soft landing, and on top of my bruises I also had a mechanical. My mechanics did their best to repair my bike and switch tires for the slippery conditions as fast as possible. Despite this time loss, I managed to finish on the podium! »
