Joris takes another win in Heerde

The first double weekend of this cyclocross season was upon us, which led the team to Heerde and Overijse. In Heerde, we we're facing a sand track and in Overijse the riders had to tackle a brutal climbing course. Spirits were high within our team as Felipe just clinched his first victory of the season in Woerden and Joris got onto the podium in the Superprestige season opener in Ruddervoorde.

Exact Cross

Exact Cross Heerde

In Heerde, our riders were facing strong competitors, such as Vandeputte, Sweeck, Ronhaar and Vandebosch. The heavy rain of this week impacted the parcours as well as the sand became less technical. Because of this, the advantage for sand specialists as Sweeck reduced and it should play into the cards of our riders. However, Felipe had a bad start. Once the start was given, he immediately clipped out of his pedal and lost a lot of terrain. Joris, on the other hand, did have a great start. He was in control for the first one and a half lap, until Ronhaar took over. The Dutchman started pushing and it became clear that Joris opted for the wrong tires. In no time, Ronhaar was able to slip away and gain a maximum advantage of 25 seconds on the chasing group.

As soon as it became clear that the Typhoon's weren't the right race tire, Joris came in for a set of Rhino tires. The difference was clear as he could start the chase right away. Lap after lap, he was able to gain some time on Ronhaar again and with a bit over one lap to go, Joris had closed the gap with him. Joris wanted to lose no time and quickly attacked for the victory. Ronhaar didn't had an answer anymore and it was Joris Nieuwenhuis who was able to take his first victory of the season.

Exact Cross

Felipe had a good comeback after his bad start and at a certain moment, it looked like he was going to fight for a double podium for the team. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep off guys like Vandeputte and Sweeck and it was a 7th place in the end.

After the race, Joris reflected on his victory: ‘I had kind of calculated it. I didn't have to go for it in one go. My personal preference is to drive relatively consistent lap times. I noticed that Pim was going really fast in the first few laps, and I chose the wrong tyres. I had to recover a bit, but once I had the right tyres, I was able to race with more confidence. It's going really well so far. I've learned to be careful with certain statements, but I'm very happy with how things are going now.’

Superprestige Overijse

The second day of this weekend brought us to Overijse for the Mother of all Cyclocross races. It's one of the toughest on the calendar as there are a lot of altitude meters for a cyclocross race. After Joris' second spot last week in Ruddervoorde, he also wanted to have a good result to defend his general classificiation.

Both Joris and Felipe had a good start, but it soon became clear that it wasn't Felipe's day. He kept losing places and his explanation after the finish was pretty simple: 'No power. Bad day for me and the track was very hard. Let's recover for next weekend and we'll try again.' He concluded the day in 21st position.

Joris had a better day, but 30 minutes into the race he felt that he wasn't able to replicate the result from Saturday. Once again, it was Pim Ronhaar who was in command for a long time in this race. He launched multiple attacks and in the beginning, Joris was able to respond. However, Ronhaar's final attack with Vanthourenhout proved to be too much. Joris didn't get much help in the chase to the leading duo and in the end, a couple of guys had a better final lap. Nieuwenhuis finished in 6th position.

Photonews

Michael Vanthourenhout took his second Superprestige win of this season and has a commanding lead in the general classification. Vandeputte just had the edge over Joris in this race and that's also the case for the GC as Joris follows in third position. The next Superprestige race is in Niel in two weeks.

Next weekend, the X2O classification will kick off as well with a double header. On Saturday, we're racing on the iconic Koppenberg and on Sunday, we'll line up in Lokeren. See you next weekend!