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The sand of Koksijde will decide who becomes world champion in cyclo-cross, but today, there was the "warming-up" world cup race.

Pauwels had some doubts about today, as sand isn't his favourite type of ground. This wasn't shown the first lap, where he took the lead with Stybar. Nys was at that moment back in the field after a bad start and he was struggling with opponents who couldn't ride as fast as him in the sand. With help of teammate Vanthourenhout he got back in the leading group.

The leading group with Nys, Pauwels, Stybar, Meeusen, Mourey and Aernouts didn't stayed together for long. In a long and hard sand area, Nys rode all the way till the end. Mourey and Meeusen couldn't keep up. Later on Stybar got in some trouble, Aernouts too but he created his own pace to take third place.

Nys and Pauwels then had only two laps left. Nys accelerated once again in the sand, but ironically in the next bit of it, he got stuck early, so Pauwels came back. In the end Nys' attempts failed, so a sprint made the decision. Pauwels was a bit surprised by the early acceleration of Nys, but kept up. Nys went to the other side of the road, keeping Pauwels against the side if the fences. Pauwels protested at first, but as Nys later said, it isn't a fault if you go to the other side of the road, as long as your opponent isn't next to you.

Tomorrow there is the superprestige-stage in Gieten, in northern Holland.