Lars van der Haar on a Valkenburg roll with UCI cyclocross World Cup #2 victory
Dutchman Lars van der Haar (Giant-Alpecin) was victorious in Sunday's UCI cyclocross World Cup race in Valkenburg, the Netherlands, for the third year in a row.
Dutchman Lars van der Haar (Giant-Alpecin) was victorious in Sunday’s UCI cyclocross World Cup race in Valkenburg, the Netherlands, for the third year in a row. On the women’s side, Italian Eva Lechner (Colnago-Sudtirol), second in the first World Cup event Crossvegas in September, prevailed to take over the Cup lead.
Congratulations to @bikereva and @larsvanderhaar for their impressive victories in #Valkenburg #UCICXWC pic.twitter.com/b5VweaLXOU
— UCI_Cyclocross (@UCI_CX) October 18, 2015
Van der Haar caught and passed Cup leader Wout van Aert (Belgium/Vastgoedservice-Golden Palace) at the end of the first lap and never looked back. Van Aert engaged last year’s Cup winner and compatriot Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Napoleon Games) and another countryman Sven Nys (Crelan-AA Drink) in a tough podium battle.
Taking the lead @larsvanderhaar #valkenburg UCI World Cup CX #rideshimano pic.twitter.com/IJelE1DU8g
— ShimanoROAD (@ShimanoROAD) October 18, 2015
Pauwels fell back with two laps to go, and van Aert got the better of Nys when the latter had to dab on the final lap. Van Aert retains the World Cup lead.
Lechner, fresh from winning the Rio mountain bike course test event, finished ahead of surprising American Kaitlin Antonneau (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) to bump Crossvegas winner Kateřina Nash (Czech Republic) from the top of the World Cup table.
Unlike Crossvegas, where Catharine Pendrel and Maghalie Rochette placed in the top-10, there were no Canadian women in Valkenburg, as they kept their powder dry for the Canadian Cyclocross Championships in Winnipeg next weekend. No Canadian men were in action either.
The next World Cup race is in Koksijde, Belgium on November 22.
