“There was a fierce battle for the best places in our large leading group,” Iserbyt opened at the finish of the Cyclo-Cross World Cup in Antwerp. “It was a struggle to maintain a good position, but I always succeeded. With three laps to go, I wanted to give it a try, Mathieu van der Poel had already started flying. I thought there were already a lot of men running over them. I was in good shape. Wout van Aert suddenly came riding in front of me and I was able to stay neatly behind him. In the last lap I crashed and so I was definitively put in third place. I wanted to accelerate on the bars, but I didn’t get around to that. Driving on and in sand is not really my thing. Those small short bends were to my advantage. I am satisfied with that third place.”
Eli Iserbyt now has 255 points in the World Cup rankings. Pim Ronhaar follows on 57 points and Lars van der Haar on 64 points. “Ronhaar and Nieuwenhuis were playing their game again as teammates,” Iserbyt said. “I pushed myself a bit. That gave me extra strength to be able to do just that little bit more. It looks good in the rankings, but we are certainly not there yet.”