OK This is really not the way I like to see a cyclocross race.
I've always thought that cyclocross was an individual sport, mano a mano but under special circumstances, it can prove to be a team sport, if the course is fast, dry and, in this case, at the end of the season when the game is over for many. However, here it's all about tactics and calculation and not like a sprinter's team launching its rocket on the road.
Under these conditions I wouldn't have liked Pauwels to win anyway. He did not have bad luck though, he rode on a root, punctured. That's his mistake unfortunately. Besides, at the end of the first lap he was two places ahead of Nys while on entering the field, he was some 5 places behind. He still has to improve that for he should have won that sprint.
Also the way Nys dramatized the whole thing before and after the race is really classless.
A matter of David and Goliath. LOL When he said that I thought he considered himself as Goliath. The fact that Niels could escape proves again that, after all, the strongest won the race, no matter the team.
Nys rode defensively all the way, leaving others take 2nd and 3rd places, which they refused. Already in Lille, where Pauwels that time was the attacker, Nys rode defensively and tried to leave 1st and 2nd places to others. This is not the way a true champion should behave, that's calculating. Perhaps it's the negative side of all these rankings. You don't care about the day results, just long term objectives.
And let's not forget St Michiels 2000 !
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