Val di Sole WC Cyclocross: Van Aert lord of the snow

Snow cyclocross is officially a reality. The ambitious project strongly desired by Val di Sole and Flanders Classics, the organizing company of the cyclocross World Cup, took shape on Sunday 12 December 2021 with the first stage of the top world circuit designed and organized to be carried out on the snow.

Source: press release

The strongest athletes in the world have embraced the novelty with curiosity and sincere enthusiasm: the various Van Aert, Vos, Pidcock, wanted to be in Vermiglio for a historic event, for the opening to a different format, for the dream of a cyclocross that could one day become an Olympic discipline at the Winter Games.

Wout Van Aert was the big favorite, and he won in spite of the (winning) effort of 24 hours before, the overnight trip and the arrival in the morning of Vermiglio. In the women's field, smiling was the young and fresh face of Fem Van Empel, 19 years old and an innate ability to float on white ground, who however had to fight until the last meters to get the better of a splendid and indomitable Marianne Vos .

Despite the subzero temperatures of Vermiglio, the athletes were warmed up by a fantastic setting of fans, fans and curious, who came from all over Northern Italy and also from abroad. Over four thousand attendees, whose enthusiasm confirms the goodness of Val di Sole's intuition. An experiment, we can bet, is destined to have a bright future.

Who knows if, as Flanders Classics CEO Tomas Van den Spiegel had wished, IOC President Richard Bach synchronized on the Val di Sole races today. For sure, from today the five-circle perspective looks closer.
Van Empel

VAN AERT IMPOSES HIS LAW IN VERMIGLIO

In one word: unbeatable. Wout Van Aert has also imposed his law on the snow of Vermiglio. The Belgian champion left behind his compatriot Michael Vanthourenhout, author of a great performance, while the British Tom Pidcock climbed to the third step of the podium at the end of an all-comeback race.

Michael Vanthourenhout himself was the author of a rocket start which however did not surprise compatriots Wout Van Aert and Eli Iserbyt, World Cup leader. The trio completed the first lap compactly, but right from the first corners of the second round Van Aert showed that he wanted to take the situation under control, putting the resistance of his compatriots to the test.

During the third lap, Iserbyt lost contact due to a crash, while behind them Tom Pidcock began a slow but gradual comeback that led him in the fourth lap to catch up and overtake both Hermans and Iserbyt. At this moment the young Englishman seemed in a position to be able to recover on everyone, but a fall in the fifth lap interrupted his comeback, while in front of him Van Aert exhausted Vanthourenhout's resistance by launching himself towards a great victory.

In the sixth round, the first two positions were consolidated, despite a crash without consequences of Van Aert, while Pidcock grabbed Iserbyt again, conquering third place. The positions remained crystallized in the last round, with Quinten Hermans completing the top-5. Only fifteenth was the first of the Italians, the young Filippo Fontana.

For Wout Van Aert it was the third success in as many seasonal crosses, and the second in two days. However, Vermiglio's success has a special flavor, as the Belgian confirmed to the microphones of the international press: “Today we made the history of cyclocross. I wanted to be at the start at all costs, plus I love competing in Italy, the atmosphere, the enthusiasm of the public, and even today I was not disappointed. It was a very technical race, you had to try to stay in the saddle as much as possible, and deal with a path that changed lap after lap. When I started doing cyclocross, the World Cup only touched the Netherlands and Belgium: today we are in Italy, we are experimenting with new scenarios and I think it is positive. Maybe some Italian kid will have fallen in love with the cross today, and he will be one of tomorrow's champions ”.

VAN EMPEL DOMINATES ADVERSARIES AND SNOW

A cold but sunny day welcomed the girls of the Women category, who opened the competition program of the cyclocross World Cup in Val di Sole.

Show had to be and spectacle was in this first race in Vermiglio, thanks to the generational duel between the rising star of the discipline, Fem Van Empel, 19 and a driving ability on the snow at times impressive, and the established champion Marianne Vos, back to try her hand with cyclocross after a two-month break but already hungry and in great shape. Third place for the Canadian Maghalie Rochestie ahead of the South Tyrolean Eva Lechner, author of a good performance in the home race.

From the very first meters, Rochette, Van Empel and Vos proved to be more familiar with ice and snow by taking off. Behind them Denise Betsema tried to get out of the group to get back on the trio, but her race lost altitude as the laps went by.

Van Empel took matters into his own hands in the second pass, thanks to a steady pace and a few smears despite the insidiousness of the snow. Behind him, Marianne Vos, on the other hand, remained behind due to a jump in the chain, losing numerous positions. At this juncture the comeback of Eva Lechner also began, climbing up to the foot of the podium.

After halfway through the race, Van Empel finally distanced Rochette and Betsema but Marianne Vos started a furious comeback behind them. The Dutch champion has skipped all the opponents with negligible ease, returning in the course of the last round also to the wheel of Fem Van Empel.

The second half of the last lap gave the Val di Sole audience a replica of the duel between Schurter and Fluckiger that took place at the MTB World Championship. Marianne Vos tried to surprise her compatriot with an overtaking on the inside but the lack of grip of the wheels on the snow caused the Dutch champion to slip and for a moment also stopped her compatriot's action. A few meters from the finish, Fem Van Empel was the first to get on her bicycle and cross the finish line in first position ahead of Marianne Vos and Canadian Rochette.

“Getting the first podium in the World Cup was one of my goals for the season: I didn't think I could win. Not only did I win today, but I won the first World Cup race on snow, staying in the lead from start to finish - fantastic, ”said the winner.

“Too bad about the crash on the last pass, but I didn't expect to win when I came back, so I'm happy,” commented Marianne Vos. “On the eve of the race I was curious and excited to face this new situation, and I must say that the course was truly beautiful. We are used to competing in cyclocross in different conditions: it was a wonderful race. "

THE REACTIONS

ROBERTO FAILONI (Councilor for Sport and Tourism of the Autonomous Province of Trento): “It was a surprising success, congratulations to the winners and to those who organized a spectacular event in a unique location. Trentino confirms itself at the forefront of sporting events, and increasingly in the world of cycling. "

CORDIANO DAGNONI (President of the Italian Cycling Federation): "The first time of cyclocross on the snow is a challenge won by Val di Sole and Trentino: we hope it will be a good omen for the future of the discipline and for an inclusion in the Olympic program."

FABIO SACCO (Director of APT Val di Sole and Grandi Eventi Val di Sole): “The experiment was successful, we hope that cyclocross can become a new tradition in our territory. We are already thinking about the date of next year, this discipline is a red thread between Mountain Bike, which is now linked to our territory, the world of gravel, which we want to develop, and winter tourism. "

TOMAS VAN DEN SPIEGEL (CEO Flanders Classics): “Today we can talk about a great success, two great races and a lot of enthusiastic people. With Val di Sole and UCI we have created an event that will remain in the history and memory of all. I believe that Cyclocross has taken a step towards the Olympics today, and I hope we can continue to work together to pursue this goal. "