Ronse/GP Mario De Clerq Thru Patrick Verhoest's Lens!

'Twas a glorious day for watching cyclocross on Sunday. The sun was occasionally shining, the rain had softened things up to a nice, crossable level, and the stars were out on the Hotondberg, the highest point in Flanders (cough).  The GP Mario De Clerq is a lovely circuit of off-camber pastoral hellishness, inviting-looking until you see the world's greatest Crossers hanging on for dear life. And so, of course, our man Patrick Verhoest was there, camera in hand.

First up: the Elite women:

Nikki Harris leads the field over hill and dale.

Helen Wyman gives chase.

Sophie de Boer wound up taking a narrow, 7" win:

Race stats:

1	29	DE BOER Sophie	0h47'14.0 '
2	2	WYMAN Helen	0h47'21.0 '	+7.0 '
3	27	VERSCHUEREN Jolien	0h47'30.0 '	+16.0 '
4	23	LOY Ellen	0h47'34.0 '	+20.0 '
5	38	ANDERSON Elie	0h48'31.0 '	+ 1'17.0

Keep those gaps in mind, the BPost Bank is the series which uses the running time as a "general classification" for series leadership.

OK, to the men's race. It was getting good and soft out there:

What a world champion's wheel looks like, at least pre-race:

As for what the world champion looks like, fears that we would never know have been officially soothed.

Speaking of world champs, here's U23 arc-en-ciel Wout Van Aert taking a brief tumble over his bars. Nothing violent, thankfully, since the kid is already working his way back from injury.

And speaking of world champs... who are old enough to be the dad of some of the other world champs in this field... Bartje Wellens!

Future world champ? We'll see, the field is crowded, but you can't fault Tom Meeusen for lack of intensity.

You can fault Kevin Pauwels for that, but despite his calm demeanor you'd be wrong. K-Pow took a quiet fourth on the day, by the width of a blade of grass.

His Klassy teammate was able to grab the final podium spot.

Stybs ground out his season-opening appearance in his fancy colors. He took eighth on the day, 1.59 back.

To this man. Of course.

It's never quite true that Sven Nys is unchallenged in a race, but it did seem like once he took over on about lap four, the deed was done. To blame was a race in the Netherlands the previous day, which Nys didn't quite take as seriously as some of the others. Anyway, Mathieu van der Poel certainly gave chase.

But Nys was as perfect as ever.

Even if van der Poel had better shoes.

Your podium:

Kisses for Sven:

Race stats:

1	2	NYS Sven	1h00'58.0 '
2	9	Mathieu van der Poel	1h01'48.0 '	+50.0 '
3	4	Vantornhout Klaas	1h01'52.0 '	+54.0 '
4	5	Kevin Pauwels	1h02'02.0 '	+ 1'04.0 '
5	3	VAN DER ITS Lars	1h02'02.0 '	+ 1'04.0 '
6	7	MEEUSEN Tom	1h02'38.0 '	+ 1'40.0 '
7	8	Wout Van Aert	1h02'47.0 '	+ 1'49.0 '
8	1	STYBAR Zdenek	1h02'57.0 '	+ 1'59.0 '
9	13	OF AMERONGEN Thijs	1h02'59.0 '	+ 2'01.0 '
10	23	ADAMS Joeri	1h03'19.0 '	+ 2'21.0 '

Basically, Nys has the overall sewn up. But the stages will still be fun!

All photos by Patrick Verhoest