Essen

Sure, the US CX Nationals are going on right now in Kansas City. Jonathan Page is back to see what he can do. But the Europeans are racing too. The GP Rouwmoer, round 4 of the GvA series, took place earlier today in Essen, Belgium. Surprise, surprise. Nys nabs another win. But the interesting battle today was for 2nd place. Wellens and the kids--Boom, Stybar, and Albert--duked it out, jockeying back and forth on the final lap. Boom eventually took the sprint for 2nd ahead of Stybar, with Wellens and Albert a bit further back.

See the last lap here:



Boom, Stybar, Albert. All on Andy's team. 370 points and the overall lead for the professor, who's been setting a blistering pace as of late. Victor, the tenacions tenor, had another good day as well. His 325 points now leave him just 55 points out of 2nd place. And only 130 out of first place. No Vantornout + no Mourey = not a good day for me. The dr. slips into 2nd place, 75 points back. With only 130 points separating 1st through 3rd, we've got ourselves an extremely tight three-way race. Perfect.

No racing for the next 11 days. But then they're back with a vengeance. 4 races over 7 days between Boxing Day and New Years.

The top 20:

Nys - 150
Boom - 125
Stybar - 100
Wellens - 90
Albert - 80
Groenendaal - 75
Vervecken - 70
D. Vanthourenhout - 65
Van Gils - 60
Aernouts - 55
Al - 50
S. Vanthourenhout - 45
Pauwels - 40
De Knegt - 35
Peeters - 30
Drucker - 25
Meeusen - 20
Berden - 15
Vanoppen - 10
Gil - 5


Today's results:

Andy - 370
Vic - 325
Matt - 235
Chris - 220
Naomi - 215
Hal - 205
Arlene - 180
Rachel - 145
Jonny - 130
Paddy - 90
Tomek - 85
David - 25
Laura - 0
Dallas - 0


Overall Standings:

Andy - 3235
Chris - 3160
Vic - 3105
Matt - 2795
Naomi - 2395
Rachel - 2175
Arlene - 2080
Jonny - 2005
Hal - 1745
Tomek - 1270
Paddy - 855
Dallas - 765
David - 495
Laura - 435

OTT: X, Under the Bib Black Sun