While we wait for the big 3 to appear, Iserbyt has been winning most races, but it’s van der Haar leading the European Championships. It would be great for him after a few lesser years.
So van Aert won every race he started in so far. Pidcock won 1, but otherwise not that impressed yet. Mathieu still to appear.
Unfortunately the new Covid rules in Belgium announced yesterday will result in a lot of cancelations. Diegem (that one in the evening) was the first to cancel because it's mostly a street race and they can't keep the public away like that.
Van Aert is on a level of his own, although clearly benefiting from van der Poel's lingering injury to cement this dominance. Pidcock still far from the Belgian's level, though, despite showing slight improvement from the last races.
Mathieu is probably going to be out for a while, let's hope he gets back for the classics. Wout also decided to skip the cyclocross world championships, meaning we'll get a very surprising winner this year.
World championships this weekend. As said above, Mathieu is injured and Wout doesn't want the jetlag, so this is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity for many riders (Stybar won in 2014, after that it's 4 for Mathieu and 3 for Wout). Hermans tested positive and is also out, same for Worst and Betsema in the women's race. There's also a mixed relay but with Holland not starting it will be a bit boring.
What a race we had today. With everyone back to their best shape, we've seen some nice duels between Mathieu and Wout so far. The gap with everyone else, including Pidcock, is just insane at the moment.
Today in Zolder is was decided in the very last lap. Mathieu attacked but made an error. Wout got through an impossible gap to take the lead and won in the sprint. I recommend wathcing the next key races in Diegem, Loenhout and Herentals.
Forget what I said, Tommy P is back! Wout had to use very trick he had to beat the world champion today. Mathieu attacked but got countered badly. I would say cyclocross is back after two lesser seasons.
Interesting weekend, today it was all about the "B-riders" in Zonnebeke. Tim Merlier won his first cross in years, beating David van der Poel and Ryan Kamp.
Tomorrow we will have the last race with the big 3 this season (Pidcock will focus on the road after tomorrow) and it's a new race in Benidorm, Spain. Over 10.000 tickets have been sold so far, so it all looks very promising. Tune in tomorrow!
