Kevin Pauwels bagged yet another win at the World Cup round number 6 of UCI Cyclo-Cross
Kevin Pauwels of Sunweb-Revor won the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup round number 6 as he defeated the world champion, Zdenek Stybar, after a close finish. Pauwels now leads the overall standings with a ten-point margin over Sven Nys.
Even though it is Pauwels third consecutive season this year, his victory on the Boxing Day is considered to be the best.
He finished the race in a total time of 1 hour, 3 minutes and 44 seconds, and now leads the overall classifications.
Zdenek Stybar finished almost at the same time and occupied the second spot, with Sven Nys 20 seconds behind at the third position.
Nys has now dropped down to the second spot at the Elite men World cup round six standings.
Kevin commented after the race, "I knew that my form was good, but [before this weekend] I hadn't been on the podium for a few weeks".
He further briefed, “Stybar started the sprint right away, so I had no other option then going full gas. I went deep in the sprint, but I had something left in my tank".
Despite his whole hearted efforts, Stybar could not match the likes of Pauwels. While sharing his disappointment he said, "Of course, I would've loved to win but on Friday in Diegem, I was eighth and not feeling well, and now I was just sprinting for the
victory, so I can't complain".
The previous winner of the race, Lars Boom, finished seventh, 48 seconds behind Pauwels.
The fourth, fifth and sixth positions were dominated by Belgian cyclists, Klaas Vantornout, Tom Meeusen and Bart Wellens, respectively.
It proved to be a bad day for Petr Dlask, Troy Wells, Ondrej Bambula, John Gadret and Robert Gavenda as they failed to make it to the finish-line.
Pauwels now leads the World Cup standings after six rounds, with 440 points to his credit.
His compatriot, Sven Nys, with 430 points, holds the second position with a massive lead of 55 points over Stybar.
Klaas Vantornout, Tom Meeusen, Bart Aernouts and Francis Mourey currently hold 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th positions, with 335, 325, 305 and 266 points, respectively.
Mathieu Van Der Poel won the Junior Men’s category, whereas Quentin Jauregui and Daan Hoeyberghs occupied the second and third positions, respectively
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