Cant and van der Poel prevail at DVV Scheldecross

At the fifth round of the DVV Trofee in Antwerp, Belgium on Saturday Sanne Cant won a sprint over her main rival of the season, Sophie de Boer (The Netherlands) after catching her up in the final two laps. It was Cant’s third DVV victory in a row. In the men’s race, Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel outdueled Belgian Wout van Aert in the sand to win his second contest of the series.

In the elite women’s race de Boer forced a gap on Lap 1 via her strong running game. With four laps remaining, de Boer had 15-seconds over Cant and three riders from the Netherlands: Marianne Vos, world champion Thalita De Jong and Maud Kaptheijns.

In the middle laps, the chase group grew. Katarina Nash (Czech Republic) hit the gas and Vos couldn’t quite hold the pace.

With two laps remaining, de Boer held a 10-second lead. On the bell lap, Cant was able to bring de Boer back in the final difficult sand section and then win the sprint. Vos, returning to ‘cross after a long absence, placed fourth.

Bye bye sophie. Good race. pic.twitter.com/QJ3TLJhIeE

— Bill Schieken | CXHAIRS Media (@CXHairs) December 17, 2016

Only 34-men took to the course on Saturday. Van Aert, Van der Poel, Toon Aerts, Kevin Pauwels et Michael Vanthourenhout became the early leading with a chasing quintet close. The barrier section was very fast with low obstacles that most riders were able to bunny hop. Van der Poel escaped for a while on lap three but Van Aert brought the main chase back to him.

On Lap 5 Van der Poel dashed away from the others, only van Aert able to follow. The Dutchman was able to put distance between himself and his rival in the sand only for the Belgian to catch him up. Again it came back together and the chase group edged closer, especially after van Aert’s error in the sand turn delayed the leading group.

Once more van der Poel and van Aert escaped, and the chase groups merged behind. Pauwels became their main pursuer and grabbed the leading duo. Van Aert pushed forward on the penultimate lap and led van der Poel and Pauwels by 3-seconds at the bell lap.

The two chasers snagged the world champion and van der Poel was able to gap his companions in the sand to set off the confetti cannon by crossing the line first.

Van Aert keeps the DVV lead over Kevin Pauwels. The next DVV Trofee race is Azencross on December 29. Sunday sees the return of the UCI cyclocross World Cup with round six in Namur.

DVV Trofee #5 Scheldecross Elite Women
1) Sanne Cant (Belgium) 39:11
2) Sophie de Boer (The Netherlands) s.t.
3) Katrina Nash (Czech Republic) +0:45

DVV Trofee #5 Scheldecross Elite Men
1) Mathieu van der Poel (The Netherlands) 1:05:31
2) Wout van Aert (Belgium) +0:04
3) Kevin Pauwels (Belgium) +0:06