Third time's a charm! Our world champion made his comeback just a few days ago and already has a win under his belt. Zdenek was the best in Thursday's Sylvester cross in Bredene where he beat out Sven Nys in a sprint finish. Niels Albert finished third to complete to podium.
Styby was one of the favorites following third place finishes in both Diegem and Loenhout. Albert and Nys also made their way to the coast to fight it out for a highly coveted Vespa. A number of notable riders did not start the race including Kevin Pauwels and Bart Wellens.
Jan Denuwelaere, Dieter Vanthourenhout and Martin Zlamalik all had a good start and were in the lead for the first half of the race. Albert, Nys and our Styby then took over and gained more than a minute on the rest of the field. “But because the course didn't appear to be hard enough so we almost knew for sure that it would be a sprint between the three of us.”
A mistake in the last lap took Albert out of contention and it ended up being a two-man sprint. And that sprint went to our world champion who booked his ninth victory of season. “It was a lot of fun,” he laughed. “Maybe I wasn't the best of the three, but I really wanted to win that Vespa.”
Correction: a second Vespa. “Yes, because I won one last year. My girlfriend Ine joked that she wanted one too so we could go on rides together in the summer.”
And the race itself? “It was more difficult than I thought it would be. We rode hard. I'm happy and relieved that there's no pain in my knee after riding three races in four days. What am I going to do for New Year's? Go to bed early because I want to do well in Baal.”
