Wout van Aert wins first CX race of the season at Superprestige Gullegem
Series leader Niels Vandeputte has one hand on the trophy with one race to go
Wout van Aert fought an engrossing battle with Eli Iserbyt in Saturday’s penultimate round of the 2024-2025 Superprestige series in Gullegem, Belgium. The final lap proved the determiner, as the three-time world champion beat the Belgian champion. Fifth-place Niels Vandeputte doubled his lead at the top of the series table and has one hand on the trophy with one race to go. Maxime St. Onge was top Canadian in 31st.
Preliminaries
The Superprestige is the tightest of the Big Three Series. Vandeputte led the series by five points over Lars van der Haar, although neither had victories in the series. Fourteen points back was Laurens Sweeck, winner of three rounds and victor in Friday’s X2O Trofee race. Van Aert was racing his second competition of the season, having placed 4th in the Exact Cross series in Loenhout.
Fabian Merino, Alexander Woodford and Maxime St. Onge made up the Canadian contingent.
Van Aert started on the third row. Vandeputte claimed the hole shot on Lap 1. He washed down the ranks, but van Aert was instantly up to third. Soon van Aert was chasing Laurens Sweeck in Position 2. St. Onge was 28th early in the race. Filipe Orts slipped around van Aert before the sand pit and then took hold of the lead. A nontet distinguished itself from the rest of the field and Sweeck pulled it over the line in 7:52.
Michael Vanthourenhout won in Gullegem last season, and he took over the front at the start of Lap 2. Van Aert could be found in the middle of the gang. The Visma rider had to sew up a hole to Emiel Verstrynge, Sweeck and Vanthourenhout. St. Onge raced in 31st.
On Lap 3 of 8 Group 1 grew, Vandeputte its caboose and Sweeck the engine. Van der Haar sliced his way into Position 3 ahead of van Aert.
Wout grabbed the reins at the start of Lap 4, drawing a roar from the crowd. Vanthourenhout clung to his wheel and Sweeck scrambled to keep up. Practically everyone hopped on a clean machine. An extraordinary moment came when van der Haar stopped riding to return his shoulder to its socket.
By Lap 5, Iserbyt and Joran Wyseure had joined Iserbyt’s teammate Vanthourenhout and van Aert.
Iserbyt turned up the pressure on Lap 6, Vanthourenhout blocking in Position 2. Van Aert didn’t want Vanthourenhout in front of him. How well Vandeputte rode to come back to fifth. Again, van Aert pushed to the front, and an appreciative roar rang out.
Van Aert and Iserbyt hit the penultimate lap seven seconds before Vanthourenhout and Wyseure. Vanthourenhout then dropped Wyseure. Van Aert kept testing the Belgian champion, who would not yield.
And so it would come down to the bell lap. Iserbyt took an inside line to claim the front. A straight stretch turned the tables and Iserbyt’s dab and subsequent clip-in problem created space for the man in yellow. Another mistake and it was game over.
The final round is February 8 in Middelkerke, Belgium.
2024-2025 Superprestige, Round 7, Gullegem
1) Wout van Aert (Belgium/Visma-Lease a Bike) 1:01:25
2) Eli Iserbyt (Belgium/Pauwels Sauzen) +0:10
3) Michael Vanthourenhout (Belgium/Pauwels Sauzen) +0:31
31) Maxime St. Onge (Canada) +6:35
42) Alexander Woodford (Canada)
44) Fabian Merino (Canada)