Michael Vanthourenhout Keeps Winning but Spots Improvement After Overijse

Michael Vanthourenhout is definitely the man of the opening cyclocross weeks. In the absence of teammate Eli Iserbyt, the West Flemish rider has to bring wins to his team Pauwels Sauzen-Altez Industriebouw, and so far Vanthourenhout is doing so with flair. In Overijse, he notched his third victory of the still young cyclocross season.

After earlier wins in Steinmauer and Ruddervoorde, Vanthourenhout was the strongest on Sunday in the 'Mother of all Cyclocrosses,' the Superprestige of Overijse. "So far it’s going well on all courses. I’m very happy with my condition," he said afterwards in an interview with WielerFlits. What stands out most is that Vanthourenhout barely makes tactical errors.

"Have I made a huge tactical leap? Before the race, I discussed it (with my team, ed.), and we concluded that I don’t have to carry the race. It may have actually worked to my advantage that I had a poor start. That way, I never had to take the lead. I mainly had to endure the race and just chose my moment in the last lap. That was enough for the victory."

Start
A cautious start followed by striking at the right moment, is that Vanthourenhout’s new tactic? "Maybe, but you’d of course prefer to start better. Then you avoid having to spend energy. Today I was still able to turn it around, but if something like that happens in Ruddervoorde, you never get back into contention. For the next races, I will focus more on getting an even better start."

photo: Fotopersburo Cor Vos