Hoogerheide@Cyclo Cross World Cup 2010/11

Patrick UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup: Albert and Compton win final race in Hoogerheide Date: 24.01.2011 Description: The last round of the Patrick UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup on the muddy course in Hoogerheide (NED) turned out to be a glorious day for Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) and Katherine Compton (USA). Albert captured the win in the final round which added even more prestige to his overall victory in the Elite Men category of the World Cup series. Despite winning five of the seven World Cup rounds, Compton was beaten in the Women's overall ranking by Sanne van Paassen (NED). Elite Men: Albert comes back in second half of race Albert's win on Sunday afternoon in Hoogerheide didn't seem likely after the first half of the race during which World Champion Zdenek Stybar (Telenet-Fidea) blew the opposition away. The Czech rider gathered a lead of more than twenty seconds but it wasn't enough to claim victory. Albert led a chasing group which joined Stybar in the lead: Stybar and Albert were accompanied by Belgians Kevin Pauwels (Telenet-Fidea), Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet) and Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Revor). During the seventh of ten laps on the slippery course Albert accelerated once again. This time only Pauwels was able to stay within ten seconds of Albert. However, he was unable to keep up the pace, leaving Albert to race to victory. Pauwels finished second and Nys held off Stybar for the last podium spot. The podium in Hoogerheide was identical to that of the overall classification of the 2010-2011 Patrick UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup. Elite Women: Van Paassen's consistency wins her overall title In the Women's race Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit) and Hanka Kupfernagel (GER) dominated the first two laps of the race. However the duo was unable to respond to the acceleration from Compton during the third lap. The US Champion continued her winning streak in the World Cup by distancing the rest of the field in Hoogerheide. Compton won ahead of Kupfernagel, who was able to shake off World Champion Vos in the last lap. Van Paassen's fourth place was enough for the Dutch rider to clinch the overall victory in the World Cup. Van Paassen won the World Cup round in Plzen (CZE) and showed consistency by finishing in the top four of all the World Cup races. Men Under 23: second win for Boulo In the Men Under 23 category, Matthieu Boulo (FRA) will have mixed feelings about his win in Hoogerheide. The French Champion captured his second victory in the World Cup series by winning the long sprint between the six men who had formed the leading group. Eventually Boulo fell one point short of the overall victory which went to European Champion Lars van der Haar (NED), who finished third in Hoogerheide behind Boulo and Belgian Champion Joeri Adams. Previous World Cup leader Vincent Baestaens (BEL) had an off-day and finished 28th. Junior Men: Sweeck's victory no surprise Laurens Sweeck's overall victory was never under threat in the Junior Men category. Sweeck (BEL) won the final round in a three-man sprint from French rivals Kévin Bouvard and Fabien Doubey. One week after the World Cup final in Hoogerheide the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships will be held in St Wendel (GER) on January 29th and 30th.