Heusden-Zolder World Cup finished, like last year van der Poel is dominating by now but it does look like van Aert is slowly coming to peak for the WC's, and with that, the battle for the World Cup lead is on fire with a mere 8 points keeping Aerts in the lead. Aerts seems to be struggling to keep his form which can give van Aert a subtil advantage for the final two races in Pont-Château and Hoogerheide.
Vanthourenhout's bad luck remains a constant, Nieuwhenhuis showing an amazing form, fitting better than Iserbyt and Pidcock (although Pidcock is much younger) in the Elite rankings, he was 4th in Namur and 3rd today, and has a riding style very similar to van Aert's. Also cool to see Stybar in action today, finishing in 21st, with better start positioning we could see him battling for Top10's if he finds suiting courses.
Also some interesting sub-plots going on, with Hermans not staying in TFL, not sure if by January he will still race with the team or not, the ressurgence of Pauwels (with a win some weeks ago) and Meeusen flying with VDP in the Flandriencross. Aernouts coming to light in TFL, Pidcock mixing the U23/Elite at just 19.. and still lots to come in the coming month and a half!
It's no coincidence WVA returns to better form the moment he had his 2019 team confirmed. I mean, it's no surprise he loses to Mathieu, but he shouldn't lose to the others so often, and the gap with Mathieu should be smaller. I wonder if he can peak like last year and destroy Mathieu at the worlds.
Nieuwenhuis is doing great and could be the number 3 next season, depending on what Wout and Mathieu choose maybe even the number one.
In general I'm disappointed in the excitement this season though. One guy is just too strong and needs 0 tactics to win a race. Of course you can't blame him for being the best, but I sure miss the good old times where you went into the last lap and 5 guys could still win the race.
Nieuwenhuis to number 3 is a hard statement though, form changes throughout the season, Aerts was dominant in the begining, Vanthourenhout and Sweeck still also have better form to show I believe (comparing to last year's results). Nieuwhenhuis is peaking rn it seems clear, he's been slowly improving since the begining of the season and although Namur course favoured him, today not really but he managed even better. Aerts is starting to fade it seems and that will surely be costly in the remainder of the world cup.
True. Also been expecting for a magic race where Aerts, van Aert and more (Vanthourenhout, Sweeck, Niuwenhuis,etc) could work together and reel VDP back in but it's impossible really, it's the long-standing debate of wether he is good or bad (in terms of show) for cyclocross.
Well WVA today stuck around MVD's wheel for the first 40 minutes of the race, tin-hat theorists are finally allowed to predict a 4th WC for van Aert
Van der Poel will miss Pont-Chateau I believe, leaving the fight for World Cup lead even more exciting as they will likely fight for the win aswell, Aerts has given a major blow to van Aert by taking the national championships but van Aert struck back today in psychological factors.
