Tibor del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceuninck) secured a surprising victory within the elite males’s race on the Dutch Cyclocross Championships in Oisterwijk on Sunday, claiming each the elite and under-23 titles within the mixed occasion.
The 21-year-old, and reigning under-23 cyclocross World Champion, battled for the coveted elite nationwide title on the final lap towards rivals Pim Ronhaar (Baloise Glowi Lions) and Joris Nieuwenhuis (Ridley Racing), and got here out on high.
Lars van der Haar (Baloise Glowi Lion) completed simply off the rostrum in fourth place.
The way it unfolded
The elite males lined up for his or her race upon the completion of the elite ladies’s occasion gained by Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck).
There was no outright favorite for the elite males’s race as reigning World Champion Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was absent. Van der Poel had already withdrawn from the X20 Trofee Ball-GP Sven Nys, X2O Trofee Koksijde and the World Cup in Dendermonde occasions because of the rib injury he sustained after Christmas, and because the Dutch Nationals weren’t on his authentic schedule, he didn’t go for a last-minute change of plan.
Van der Poel’s teammate Del Grosso nonetheless took the reins early within the elite males’s championships occasion, adopted shortly by Nieuwenhuis within the opening lap. Ronhaar, Van der Haar and Corne van Kessel quickly reconnected to type a lead group of 5.
Van der Haar was the primary to surge however Nieuwenhuis and Ronhaar caught and handed him and he was quickly distanced with del Grosso. Van Kessel had fallen off the tempo solely.
Together with his Baloise Glowi Lions teammate up forward, Van der Haar refused to assist Del Grosso, which meant that the younger rider needed to shut the hole to the leaders on his personal.
Distancing Van der Haar within the course of, Del Grosso made it again as much as Nieuwenhuis and Ronhaar on the fifth lap and the trio seemed to be the strongest within the battle for the title in the course of the closing laps.
Ronhaar surged and gained a number of seconds on Del Grosso as Nieuwenhuis struggled to regain contact. Del Grosso clawed himself again onto Ronhaar’s wheel after which attacked within the final metres of the circuit to assert the elite title.
He completed the race seven seconds forward of runner-up Ronhaar and 31 seconds forward of third-placed Nieuwenhuis.
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