Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) has overcome near disaster at the UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Dublin this afternoon to take a dominant victory. The Belgian rider was in a class of his own when he made his move with just over one lap, of seven, remaining. He was a very worthy winner in a freezing Dublin in front a huge crowd.
On a day when there were nine Irish riders in the field, Dean Harvey and Darnell Moore - both Team Ireland - were best of the men from the host nation and both finished on the same lap as the winner.
For Van Aert, just a few laps before powering away from his rivals to win he suffered a freak mishap when a towel used by a mechanic got stuck in his gears as he was ridding past the pits area. He was forced off his bike and had to run back down the course a little to the entrance of the pits when he grabbed a new bike.
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At that point, world champion Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) was leading the front group. And by the time Van Aert got his new bike and was back riding again, a gap of at least 10 seconds had appeared between the Belgian champion and the front of the race.
However, van Aert powered through the mud and eventually got back up to the leaders. And when Pidcock began to falter on the penultimate lap, and slipped to the back of the strung-out lead group, Van Aert made his move.
He hit the afterburners just before racing onto the final lap and immediately had a gap on Laurens Sweeck (Crelan-Fristads). Van Aert then powered all the way around the final lap, on the Sport Ireland Campus in Blanchardstown, to win by 14 seconds from Sweeck, who has been one of the men of the season so far.
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Pidcock seemed to gather himself quite well on the final lap and overtook some of those at the front of the race to take 3rd place, some 17 seconds down on Van Aert. Lars van der Haar (Baloise Trek Lions) was 4th at 19 seconds while European champion Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) was 5th at 22 seconds.
Dean Harvey was best of the Irish, placing 26th at 6:54, with his national team teammate Darnell Moore next of the Irish, finishing in 29th place at 8:36.
Chris McGlinchey, the third member of the Irish team, was next at one lap, followed by Seán Nolan (EvoPro Racing), Jamie Meehan (Spellman Dublin Port), Dillon Corkery (Verge-Pi Cycles), Richard Barry (St Finbarr's CC), Darragh McCarter (Spellman Dublin Port) and Frank McDermott (Oldcastle CC).
Lots more to come.
