Kevin Pauwels beats Zdenek Stybar to win GVA Trofee Hasselt 2011- Cycling Update
Sunweb-Revor Team’s Kevin Pauwels returned to town in Flanders and powered to beat the Cyclo-cross World champion Zdenek Stybar of Quick Step Cycling on Saturday, November 19. The race started and finished in Hasselt.
The Belgium cyclist, Pauwels out-sprinted a small group of cyclists in the final kilometres. He took a total of 59 minutes and 39 seconds to cover the distance of the race, while Stybar was in the runner-up’s spot with the same finishing time as Pauwels.
After finishing the stage, Pauwels told the media, “Two years ago I learned that if you want to win you need to enter the last corner in the lead so that’s what I did. I was a bit too sure of the win because Stybar almost passed me on the line. Luckily I didn’t raise my hands too early”.
As the race progressed, a small group of riders made their breakaway lead but during the second lap, Radomir Simunek of BCKP-Powerplus encountered a nasty crash, during which he took down two other cyclists, Mariusz Gil of Baboco and Rob Peeters of Telenet-Fidea, along with him.
Another group of cyclists powered to take a lead in the sand pit. They were: Pauwels, Stybar, Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet) , Tom Meeusen (Telenet Fidea), Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Revor) and Dieter Vanthourenhout (BKCP-Powerplus).
However, Stybar managed to take the first intermediate sprint ahead of Pauwels and Nys. Pauwels increased his pace after the sprint and was able to remain ahead of the other cyclists by the end of the third lap.
Stybar continued his efforts and bridged the distance with Pauwels in the fourth lap. However, in the next sand pits, Nys and Stybar lost their resilience, allowing Pauwels to get away.
Stybar said, "When I was hitting the sand first there were no tracks. It's easier to ride through it when following someone. At the end of the race things improved a lot as the tracks were still there when we reached the sand pit”.
In the seventh lap of the race, Bart Aernouts of Rabobank-Giant displayed an impressive comeback and quickly sneaked ahead of Vantornout.
In the last lap, the four leading cyclists rode very well jointly, in the sand pit but at tree trunks things started to change. Meeusen tried his luck during the jumps but he failed.
However, Pauwels increased his pace and crossed the finish-line ahead of the other cyclists to take his victory.
Nys was in the third place with a difference of 1 second ahead of Dieter Vanthourenhout of BKCP-Powerplusm who was 10 seconds adrift.
Klaas Vantornout of Sunweb Revor finished in the fifth place with a difference of 34 seconds.
After three rounds of the GVA Trofee Hasselt, Pauwels took the lead with 81 points ahead of Stybar who secured 69 points.
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